April 22-30, 2024 with Jesse Fagan
Great people. Fun group. Wonderful tour. Fantastic birds.
That pretty much summarizes our tour this year to the Dominican Republic with a private group set up by Russ and Suzi Cole. We had such a great time that we are already planning our next adventure in Peru. I can’t wait!
This tour took us to several corners of the Dominican Republic, which is the eastern half of the island of Hispaniola shared with Haiti. We started off on the northeast coast along Samana Bay, which borders Los Haitises National Park. It is here the Critically Endangered endemic Ridgway’s Hawk holds on with support from the Peregrine Fund and its captive breeding program. With help from our local guide, Juan, we were able to track down an adult that was probably near a nest based on its quiet, shy behavior. In the evening, we were successful in finding a cooperative Ashy-faced Owl, another tough endemic. We also enjoyed a boat trip through the mangroves and karst outcrops in San Lorenzo Bay where there were a good number of West Indian Whistling-Ducks and nesting Caribbean Martins.
The next part of the tour we spent in the far southwest corner, in the Parque Nacional Sierra de Baoruco. This is a gorgeous area of the country with montane evergreen forest including pines in the highlands and white sand with turquoise blue water along the coast. This is also the home of Larimar, a rare aqua-blue pectolite found only in this part of the world. Our first two days were spent in the highlands at the famous site of Zapoten. After a very early departure, climbing in the dark in our 4x4 vehicles, we arrived at “La Curva.” We had a smashing morning here finding La Selle Thrush, White-winged Warbler, Narrow-billed Tody, Hispaniolan Trogon, Antillean Piculet, and Western Chat-Tanager, among others. On the way down, we made a brief foray into Haiti. In the afternoon, we focused on the dry thorn forest near “La Placa”. It was in this habitat we encountered Flat-billed Vireo and the always-difficult Bay-breasted Cuckoo. More evening birding had us looking at Least Pauraque and several scorpions in the UV light.
Rounding the peninsula to the south, we spent a night at Pedernales near the Haitian border so that we could easily access Aceitillar and its pine forest. Another dark departure meant chances for Hispaniolan Nightjar, which we tracked down along the roadside. A little higher up at the tiny reservoir, Hispaniolan Crossbills were around and ended up in the scope for fine views. This happened a couple of times! There were good numbers of Hispaniolan Palm-Crows and our best looks yet at Golden Swallow. They really are golden in the warm morning light. We traced our steps back to Barahona with one more night before rising early to climb up the mountain known as El Cachote in search of Eastern Chat-Tanager. This is a coffee growing area that is receiving lots of pressure to convert the humid montane forest into coffee and cacao production. We witnessed the habitat alteration firsthand, but we were more hopeful after meeting our local guide, Ramone, who is very interested in helping birders find chat-tanagers and quail-doves. Thanks to Ramone’s guidance we had amazing looks at the endemic White-fonted Quail-Dove, several Ruddy Quail-Doves, and Eastern Chat-Tanager.
We came full circle returning to Santo Domingo with a night in the colonial zone. It is a historic city, the first in the New World, and we celebrated with a fun vegetarian dinner near Parque Colon and plans for more trips. Top bird of the trip: Narrow-billed Tody! Thanks to everyone on this trip (Russ, Suzi, Jim, Linda, Glenn, Janet, and Linda) and I look forward to spending time with you again in the field. Also, thanks to our local guides and drivers, Bienvenido, Efrain, Rafael, Ramone, and Manny. Best of birding in 2024 and beyond.
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/265158
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/dom24pTRIPLIST.pdf
Jesse Fagan (aka Motmot) from Lima, Peru