Not exactly somewhere over a rainbow but somewhere high up in the hills behind Montego Bay, near Anchovy, there’s a beautiful hidden treasure that a blog post can’t do any justice to.
I’m not a bird watcher at all but I heard about this place years ago and even drove past the sign for it years ago. But I just didn’t make the time to go there until a few weeks ago when I was driving from the south coast to Montego Bay to pick up some travelers at the airport. I made a conscious decision even before this trip that when I come upon the sign again I would TURN and go visit the Rocklands Bird Sanctuary.
Nothing could have prepared me for the unknown drive into this place though! It felt like a 90 degree drive up a super sloped narrow road, a 45 degree angle turn onto more 90 degree sloped road. Knowing that tour buses come up here, in hindsight I have no idea what I would have done if I had encountered one coming down while I was going up. There’s no way two cars could pass on that road. I remember saying out loud to my Canadian friend in the car that I didn’t want to do this anymore lol. But my ever-ready Budget Rental Car never fails to get me where I need to be.
When we arrived at the top the sanctuary was right there – not difficult to find at all. I’ll never forget how peaceful the sound was up there….pure quiet and millions of birds chirping.
We had no idea what to expect nor how much this would cost when we walked in, we just knew we wanted to try feeding hummingbirds and Doctorbirds (Jamaica’s national bird). I’d watched other people’s Youtube videos of the experience and really wanted my own experience. These little birds did not disappoint! I thought we’d have to sit for hours and just pray one would come to us but it’s not like that at all. LOTS of them come to you all the time! You simply hold your finger out, hold a little bottle of sugar water and they just keep coming to you! It’s kind of like a fairy tale. These tiny birds are so beautiful and wonderful to look at up close while they sit on your finger and fly around your head.
Check out a couple of my video clips below:
I believe we each paid $2000 JMD for this experience, which is about $20.00 USD. I think it’s a small price to pay for such a unique opportunity. Where else are you going to see one (or many) of these beautiful creatures up close? You can sit and feed them as long as you like and you can also walk around the back yard gardens to your heart’s delight. It’s a gorgeous place to be.
I think we spent about an hour up here and during our visit a few other tourists came and went. I have proof that buses CAN make it up that hill because one couple who was there came on a bus! I even gave their bus driver my car keys to go move my car since it was in a precarious position that I didn’t want to deal with on the way out lol.
For more information about the Rocklands Bird Sanctuary please visit their Facebook page or this Info Page I found, which is not affiliated with the sanctuary. They don’t seem to have their own website.
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