INAGUA NATIONAL PARK

The park occupies 743 km² 25 km northeast of Matthew Town. It was the initiative of Robert Porter Allen, one of the leaders of the Audubon Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of birds around the world, who arrived in Inagua in 1952. Mr. Allen was famous in Florida, where a string of islands bearing his name, the Bob Allen Keys, can be seen. The park was established in 1963 and is managed by the Bahamas National Trust. It is a sanctuary for the "West Indies" flamingos, the national bird of the Bahamas, which are only found in this region. Some 80,000 individuals live here, the largest colony in the world, and a population census is conducted every spring. It is a wonderful sight to see this undulating pink wave taking flight at sunset. A privileged nesting place for birds that find food in abundance (small crustaceans, shrimps, insects, larvae...) in the salt ponds nearby, the park is also home to many species of tropical birds, bahamian ducks, egrets, pelicans, Bahamian parrots, night owls, herons perched on their thin legs, gracile egrets, spoonbills, cormorants and some representatives of saurians such as turtles and iguanas. If you would like to visit this place, call to arrange a visit with a park warden and prefer the morning or late afternoon, the heat is less intense and the birds more wild.