I woke up on January 11 feeling well-rested, which may have been because of the air conditioning and the plushest bed I’d slept in since home. That was a good thing because with this many consecutive days of non-stop birding I was getting a bit tired, yet feeling a bit rejuvenated by being close to the Caribbean and surrounded by either ocean, grassy dunes, or mangroves which are environments I like to explore. What I did not know was that while potential new Cuban endemics were lacking (but near-endemics were not!), this would be the biggest birding day by total species count of the entire trip.
Our first stop at sunrise was what was relayed to us as “the disco cave”. It was, in essence, just that but the name was Jabali Cave Night Club. We started not in the cave proper, but in an area above it where there were two wildlife feeding and watering stations set up looking for Key West Quail-Dove. We saw three of them. Despite the quail-dove being a “lifer”, perhaps more exciting was a bright male Painted Bunting which most of us saw well but I was unable to photograph.
The inside of the cave was remarkable: it functions as a bar and nightclub at night, but during the day it’s a major bat roost. The common and openly-roosting bat was Waterhouse’s Leaf-nosed Bat, which hung en masse and scattered as we walked through. Less conspicuous were the Big Brown Bats, which managed to tuck themselves into crevices where they could only be viewed with a flashlight as a little bat face looking back at you. The new Cuban endemic picked up outside of the cave, and the last one we could possibly get, was Oriente Warbler. It was seen well, but I didn’t even try to photograph the quickly moving bird with the harsh backlight.
Leaving Grand Aston Cayo Paredon Beach Resort early in the morning for birding. 
Arriving at Jabali Cave Night Club. 
Entrance sign for Jabali Cave Night Club. 
Looking for Key West Quail Dove at Jabali Cave Night Club. 
Key West Quail-Dove at Jabali Cave Night Club. 
Open area at Jabali Cave Night Club. 
A bar at Jabali Cave Night Club. 
Waterhouse’s Leaf-nosed Bat at Jabali Cave Night Club. 
Birding a sewage pond 
Traveling the causeway. 
A dangerously rickety walkway. 
Smooth-billed Ani. 
Bahama Mockingbird 
Mangrove Cuckoo 
Hemingway statue on the causeway. 
I spent the afternoon with a bit of Cuban rum at the beach at Grand Aston Cayo Paredon Beach Resort.
Our next stop was the Cayo Coco Wastewater Treatment Ponds where we picked up 12 species, most being shorebirds and waterfowl (and one being the ever present single Palm Warbler). The most exciting thing there for me was Least Grebe. The remainder of the day was focused around several lagoons, mostly looking for West Indian Whistling-Duck and Bahama Mockingbird. The former was hard to find. The latter was not, and we got a bonus Mangrove Cuckoo in the process. That cuckoo may have been the last bird of any significance that I saw on the trip, as I spent the afternoon lounging at the hotel and sipping Cuban rum (it is as good as they say!), and the short remainder of the trip was focused on Havana.
The table below summarizes the 63 bird species observed on our seventh day in Cuba based on output from eBird. The 6 Cuban endemics observed that day are highlighted in green.
| Common Name | Scientific Name | Count | Location |
| West Indian Whistling-Duck | Dendrocygna arborea | 1 | Laguna flamingos |
| Blue-winged Teal | Spatula discors | 12 | Cayo Coco Wastewater Treatment Ponds |
| Northern Shoveler | Spatula clypeata | 10 | Cayo Coco Wastewater Treatment Ponds |
| American Wigeon | Mareca americana | 4 | Cayo Coco Wastewater Treatment Ponds |
| White-cheeked Pintail | Anas bahamensis | 6 | Laguna flamingos |
| Red-breasted Merganser | Mergus serrator | 1 | Laguna flamingos |
| American Flamingo | Phoenicopterus ruber | 3 | Laguna flamingos |
| Least Grebe | Tachybaptus dominicus | 8 | Cayo Coco Wastewater Treatment Ponds |
| Key West Quail-Dove | Geotrygon chrysia | 3 | Cayo Coco–Cueva del Jabali |
| Zenaida Dove | Zenaida aurita | 1 | Cayo Coco–Cueva del Jabali |
| Smooth-billed Ani | Crotophaga ani | 2 | Auto selected 22.61098, -78.68347 |
| Mangrove Cuckoo | Coccyzus minor | 1 | Cayo Coco–Cueva del Jabali |
| Cuban Emerald | Riccordia ricordii | 1 | Cayo Coco–Cueva del Jabali |
| Sora | Porzana carolina | 1 | Laguna flamingos |
| Black-necked Stilt | Himantopus mexicanus | 20 | Cayo Coco Wastewater Treatment Ponds |
| American Avocet | Recurvirostra americana | 10 | Cayo Coco Wastewater Treatment Ponds |
| Black-bellied Plover | Pluvialis squatarola | 1 | Hotel Meliá, Cayo Guillermo |
| Semipalmated Plover | Charadrius semipalmatus | 13 | Hotel Meliá, Cayo Guillermo |
| Piping Plover | Charadrius melodus | 1 | Laguna flamingos |
| Red Knot | Calidris canutus | 8 | Hotel Meliá, Cayo Guillermo |
| Stilt Sandpiper | Calidris himantopus | 1 | Hotel Meliá, Cayo Guillermo |
| Sanderling | Calidris alba | 1 | Hotel Meliá, Cayo Guillermo |
| Least Sandpiper | Calidris minutilla | 1 | Cayo Coco Wastewater Treatment Ponds |
| Short-billed Dowitcher | Limnodromus griseus | 20 | Hotel Meliá, Cayo Guillermo |
| Spotted Sandpiper | Actitis macularius | 1 | Cayo Coco Wastewater Treatment Ponds |
| Lesser Yellowlegs | Tringa flavipes | 3 | Cayo Coco Wastewater Treatment Ponds |
| Bonaparte’s Gull | Chroicocephalus philadelphia | 1 | Laguna flamingos |
| Caspian Tern | Hydroprogne caspia | 6 | Hotel Meliá, Cayo Guillermo |
| Brown Pelican | Pelecanus occidentalis | 1 | Laguna flamingos |
| Great Blue Heron | Ardea herodias | 1 | Laguna flamingos |
| Great Egret | Ardea alba | 1 | Cayo Coco–Cueva del Jabali |
| Snowy Egret | Egretta thula | 1 | Hotel Meliá, Cayo Guillermo |
| Little Blue Heron | Egretta caerulea | 1 | Pond across from Sol Cayo Coco |
| Tricolored Heron | Egretta tricolor | 1 | Hotel Meliá, Cayo Guillermo |
| White Ibis | Eudocimus albus | 3 | Laguna flamingos |
| Roseate Spoonbill | Platalea ajaja | 6 | Laguna flamingos |
| Turkey Vulture | Cathartes aura | 6 | Cayo Coco Wastewater Treatment Ponds |
| Cuban Black Hawk | Buteogallus gundlachii | 1 | Pond across from Sol Cayo Coco |
| Cuban Green Woodpecker | Xiphidiopicus percussus | 1 | Cayo Coco–Cueva del Jabali |
| Crested Caracara | Caracara plancus | 1 | Auto selected 22.61098, -78.68347 |
| American Kestrel | Falco sparverius | 1 | Pond across from Sol Cayo Coco |
| La Sagra’s Flycatcher | Myiarchus sagrae | 2 | Cayo Coco–Cueva del Jabali |
| Loggerhead Kingbird | Tyrannus caudifasciatus | 1 | Cayo Coco–Cueva del Jabali |
| Yellow-throated Vireo | Vireo flavifrons | 1 | Cayo Coco–Cueva del Jabali |
| Gray Catbird | Dumetella carolinensis | 1 | Cayo Coco–Cueva del Jabali |
| Bahama Mockingbird | Mimus gundlachii | 1 | Auto selected 22.61098, -78.68347 |
| Northern Mockingbird | Mimus polyglottos | 1 | Auto selected 22.61098, -78.68347 |
| Red-legged Thrush | Turdus plumbeus | 1 | Cayo Coco–Cueva del Jabali |
| Western Spindalis | Spindalis zena | 1 | Cayo Coco–Cueva del Jabali |
| Oriente Warbler | Teretistris fornsi | 1 | Cayo Coco–Cueva del Jabali |
| Cuban Blackbird | Ptiloxena atroviolacea | 2 | Cayo Coco–Cueva del Jabali |
| Greater Antillean Grackle | Quiscalus niger | 2 | Cayo Coco–Cueva del Jabali |
| Ovenbird | Seiurus aurocapilla | 1 | Cayo Coco–Cueva del Jabali |
| American Redstart | Setophaga ruticilla | 1 | Cayo Coco Wastewater Treatment Ponds |
| Cape May Warbler | Setophaga tigrina | 1 | Cayo Coco–Cueva del Jabali |
| Black-throated Blue Warbler | Setophaga caerulescens | 1 | Cayo Coco–Cueva del Jabali |
| Palm Warbler | Setophaga palmarum | 1 | Cayo Coco–Cueva del Jabali |
| Yellow-rumped Warbler | Setophaga coronata | 1 | Auto selected 22.61098, -78.68347 |
| Yellow-throated Warbler | Setophaga dominica | 1 | Cayo Coco–Cueva del Jabali |
| Prairie Warbler | Setophaga discolor | 1 | Cayo Coco–Cueva del Jabali |
| Painted Bunting | Passerina ciris | 1 | Cayo Coco–Cueva del Jabali |
| Yellow-faced Grassquit | Tiaris olivaceus | 1 | Cayo Coco–Cueva del Jabali |
| Cuban Bullfinch | Melopyrrha nigra | 1 | Cayo Coco–Cueva del Jabali |
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