Rocklands Bird Sanctuary

Lisa Salmon began feeding birds at her house above Anchovy in the 1950s and kept doing it for half a century, gradually training generations of wild birds to come to the hand. The sanctuary she founded still works the same way: you sit on the veranda in the late afternoon holding a small bottle of sugar water, and hummingbirds land on your finger to drink. The star is the red-billed streamertail, the doctor bird, which is endemic to Jamaica, is the national bird, and carries two tail feathers longer than its body. Around the feeders come Jamaican orioles, todies, saltators and finches, and the garden trails hold more.

What you actually see

• The doctor bird - the endemic red-billed streamertail, feeding from the hand.
• The veranda feeding - hummingbirds landing on your finger.
• Jamaican endemics - todies, orioles and others around the feeders.
• The garden trails - short walks through the hillside planting.

When to go

December to April is drier. Late afternoon, from about three o'clock, is the feeding time and the reason to come; mornings are much quieter for birds. It takes about ninety minutes.

Honest expectations

It is a small private garden and the experience is short. The buildings and facilities are basic and have not changed much in decades, which some find charming and others neglected. Cruise excursions can fill the veranda. The road up from Montego Bay is narrow and steep.

Nearby

Montego Bay is twenty minutes; Rose Hall is half an hour east.