Franklin's Forest lies near the centre of the East End distinct of

Grand Cayman Grand Cayman is the largest of the three Cayman Islands and the location of the territory's capital, George Town. In relation to the other two Cayman Islands, it is approximately 75 miles (121 km) southwest of Little Cayman and 90 miles ( ...

, one of the

Cayman Islands The Cayman Islands () is a self-governing British Overseas Territory—the largest by population in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located to the ...

, a

British Overseas Territory The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen dependent territory, territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remna ...

in the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...

. It is one of the territory's Important Bird Areas (IBAs).

Description

Franklin's Forest is a 111 ha tract of native

tropical dry forest The tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest is a habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature and is located at tropical and subtropical latitudes. Though these forests occur in climates that are warm year-round, and may receive ...

bordered by ''

Conocarpus ''Conocarpus'' is a genus of two species of flowering plants in the family Combretaceae, native to tropical regions of the world. One of the species is a widespread mangrove species, and the other is restricted to a small area around the southern ...

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

s and farmland. It lies south of the Salina Reserve and east of

Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

. It is unprotected and partly privately owned.

Birds

The IBA was identified as such by BirdLife International because it supports populations of

white-crowned pigeon The white-crowned pigeon (''Patagioenas leucocephala'') is a fruit and seed-eating species of bird in the dove and pigeon family Columbidae. It is found primarily in the Caribbean. John James Audubon painted these pigeons, including the waterco ...

s, Cuban amazons, Caribbean elaenias,

thick-billed vireo The thick-billed vireo (''Vireo crassirostris'') is a small songbird. It breeds in the West Indies in the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos Islands, Cayman Islands, Tortuga Island in Haiti and on cays off the coast of Cuba. It occasionally can be found ...

Yucatan vireo The Yucatan vireo (''Vireo magister'') is a species of bird in the family Vireonidae. Closely related to the red-eyed vireo, its plumage a duller overall. It measures . It has a stout, hooked bill that is gray, paler at the base. A broad white ...

s and

vitelline warbler The vitelline warbler (''Setophaga vitellina'') is a songbird species in the New World warbler family (Parulidae). It is found in the Cayman Islands and on the Swan Islands in Honduras. Taxonomy This species is part of the large New World warbl ...

References

Important Bird Areas of the Cayman Islands Tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests Grand Cayman {{Caymans-geo-stub