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The
birds are the masters of the island. The endemic black peak, the thrushs, the
mocker corossol, the mocker grivotte, the thrush with yellow feet, the heron,
" garde boeufs, green heron, snow-covered egret, blue egret, large heron,
large egret, osprey, purplish bihoreau, black face sporophile, the fly swallower
moucherolle with broad nozzle flattened at the base, the gray tyrant, the
peruline caféiette, the robin sporophile.
With
1200 cardiac pulsations per minute, 60 beats of wings a second, 70 km/h (45 mph), the
hummingbird cumulates the records. Various varieties can be found on the island,
the garnet-red hummingbird and the crested hummingbird are most widespread in the
park. The first one is the most imposing, the other is the smallest of the
hummingbird of the island. Their pronounced taste for nectar make them excellent
pollenators, just like the yellow chest sugar-bird. Little intimidated by the
proximity man, he prefers the littoral zones of the park, where one can see the
'gligli', a kind of small falcon, the only sedentary raptor race of the archipelago.
Some insects
are impressive. Threatened species, the pit sawyer, thus named because of its
enormous claw, is one of the latter; it can measure up to 17 cm (0.5 feet). Another giant
of the night, the mourning butterfly opens its dark brown wings on nearly 15 cm
of scale. Perfectly similar to the brushwood, the devil horse, a phasme up to 25 cm
(0.8 feet) long.
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