October 22, 2025
As Hurricane Melissa continued to strengthen southwest of Hispaniola, the bands of rain finally reached us and it was evident in the morning that some rain had fallen overnight. Luckily for us, a gap in the rain at dawn allowed us a comfortable morning of birding along the Rabo de Gato Trail. We had just one big target, the White-fronted Quail-Dove. This would likely be our final shot at this endemic species.
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| Hunting for quail-doves - Rabo de Gato, Independencia, Dominican Republic |
Unfortunately, despite putting in a solid three hours on the trail before breakfast, the quail-dove remained unaccounted for. I have heard that they have become less common in this area (possibly due to a prolonged drought?). At any rate, they were not responding to playback and we were unable to find one quietly walking on the forest floor. The famous leaky pipe cited in numerous trip reports is leaking no more. Not that they would have been attracted to a water drip after all the rain, anyways!
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| Rabo de Gato, Independencia, Dominican Republic |
We heard a Bay-breasted Cuckoo at one point but did not try to call it in considering our incredible experience the previous day. Otherwise, the birding was pretty slow with mainly just the expected species. My personal highlight was finally seeing a couple of Hispaniolan Euphonias. Up to this point, they had been common by voice but always hidden and non-responsive to playback.
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| Hispaniolan Euphonias - Rabo de Gato, Independencia, Dominican Republic |
We photographed a few insects here and there as well.
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| Antillean Sylph (Macrothemis celeno) - Rabo de Gato, Independencia, Dominican Republic |
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| Tersa Sphinx (Xylophanes tersa) - Rabo de Gato, Independencia, Dominican Republic |
Admitting defeat with the White-fronted Quail-Dove, we made our way back to the ecolodge to pack our bags and check out. The quail-dove dip was painful as it is a species that seems pretty reliable during the dry season. Oh well, can't get them all.
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| Purple Pinwheel (Marasmius haematocephalus) - Rabo de Gato, Independencia, Dominican Republic |
Our plan for the day was to drive east, then south, and then west to a town called Pedernales which is located along the southern Dominican Republic coast near the border with Haiti. This would put us close to a paved road (the ALCOA road) that accesses high-elevation pine forest. For most birders there are three main target species here: Hispaniolan Palm-Crow, Hispaniolan Crossbill, and Golden Swallow. We had seen the first two already but we were missing the Golden Swallow. This is also a reliable area for the Stygian Owl (which Laura needed), plus the region is excellent for snorkelling, sea-watching and shorebirding.
However, Hurricane Melissa made us change these plans. Pedernales was forecast to receive a ton of rain in the next couple of days, and we worried about a landslide blocking the access road and trapping us there, unable to make it back to Punta Cana for our international flight. Additionally, given the weather forecast of steady rain, we would have a hard time finding much of anything (especially Golden Swallows). And the wind and rain would make snorkelling difficult with deteriorating water clarity and increased wave action.
And so we made the decision to abort this part of the trip. We chose the sensible option of driving eastwards to avoid the worst of the rains. Perhaps we would visit the central mountains north of Santo Domingo if the weather forecast was ok there, as this would give us another chance at the Golden Swallow. It would just require several hours of extra driving.
The most interesting part of the drive eastwards was a road-killed snake that we found just outside of Puerto Escondido. This is a Ford's Boa which is a scarce species found in desert scrub on Hispaniola. There are only a few previous records of this species on iNaturalist. It would have been nice to see it alive, that's for sure!
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| Ford's Boa (Chilabothrus fordii) - Puerto Escondido, Independencia, Dominican Republic |
Our drive east was uneventful and in the mid-afternoon we detoured south to a coastal area called Salinas de Baní. This sandy peninsula is home to a couple of rare lizards including a spectacular iguana. The expansive mangroves and shallow pools provide habitat for a high diversity of shorebirds and wading birds as well.
Despite threatening with rain, the skies spared us for the whole time that we spent here.
I had barely set up the spotting scope next to the roadway when a pickup truck pulled up and four guys jumped out to chat with us. They were members of the tourist police, and they seemed very excited to have some tourists to talk to! They wished us well on our birding quest and insisted that they take a photo with us. Of course, their jovial nature did not show through in the photo (got to look serious and professional in the photo!).
Our target iguana species turned out to be quite common on this peninsula. We had amazing looks at the Rhinoceros Iguanas, even despite the overcast, gloomy weather.
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| Rhionoceros Iguana (Cyclura cornuta) - Salinas de Baní, Peravia, Dominican Republic |
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| Rhionoceros Iguana (Cyclura cornuta) - Salinas de Baní, Peravia, Dominican Republic |
So named due to the bony tubercles on their snouts, the Rhinoceros Iguana is an endangered species only found on Hispaniola. These large lizards are mainly vegetarian, feeding on fruits, leaves, flowers and seeds from a number of different plant species. As the largest herbivores in their environment, they are important seed dispersers.
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| Rhionoceros Iguana (Cyclura cornuta) - Salinas de Baní, Peravia, Dominican Republic |
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| Rhionoceros Iguana (Cyclura cornuta) - Salinas de Baní, Peravia, Dominican Republic |
This particular site was rather birdy and Dan and I took the opportunity to improve on our photos of Hispaniolan Woodpeckers.
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| Hispaniolan Woodpeckers - Salinas de Baní, Peravia, Dominican Republic |
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| Hispaniolan Woodpecker - Salinas de Baní, Peravia, Dominican Republic |
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| Hispaniolan Woodpecker - Salinas de Baní, Peravia, Dominican Republic |
Next, we visited Dunas de Las Calderas Baní. This is a trail that enters the massive system of sand dunes which are a prominent feature of this peninsula. The trail was technically closed due to the hurricane (even though it was calm with no rain at the moment). However, the ranger was willing to accompany us and give an impromptu tour of the dunes. Yet another example of a friendly, welcoming Dominican.
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| Dunas de Las Calderas Baní, Peravia, Dominican Republic |
We hoped to find the endemic curlytail lizard here (Hispaniolan Dune Curlytail), but the cloudy skies prevented any lizards from appearing, other than a single Rhinoceros Iguana.
The definitive highlight of our brief stroll here was a cooperative male Greater Antillean Bullfinch, a lifer for Dan and by far the best views that I have had of this species. Laura had seen a pair briefly earlier in the trip, but this was a much better experience for her, too.
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| Greater Antillean Bullfinch - Dunas de Las Calderas Baní, Peravia, Dominican Republic |
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| Greater Antillean Bullfinch - Dunas de Las Calderas Baní, Peravia, Dominican Republic |
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| Greater Antillean Bullfinch - Dunas de Las Calderas Baní, Peravia, Dominican Republic |
Next, we headed over to the mangroves to try to turn up a Clapper Rail or two, since this was a potential lifer for Laura.
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| White-cheeked Pintail - Salinas de Baní, Peravia, Dominican Republic |
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| Eurasian Collared-Dove - Salinas de Baní, Peravia, Dominican Republic |
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| Reddish Egret - Salinas de Baní, Peravia, Dominican Republic |
It took some effort but we managed excellent looks at a single Clapper Rail, while we heard several other pairs.
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| Clapper Rail - Salinas de Baní, Peravia, Dominican Republic |
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| Clapper Rail - Salinas de Baní, Peravia, Dominican Republic |
A different individual was slinking around out in the open.
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| Clapper Rail - Salinas de Baní, Peravia, Dominican Republic |
The Yellow Warblers here are a resident subspecies and with the newest eBird taxonomy update, they are now considered Mangrove Yellow Warbler which has been split from the "regular" Yellow Warbler.
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| Mangrove Yellow Warbler - Salinas de Baní, Peravia, Dominican Republic |
In an effort to pad our trip list, we ventured over to the saline ponds near the end of the peninsula. These can often be packed with shorebirds but it was a poor showing for our visit. Perhaps it was just a bit too late in the year, or maybe the water levels were a bit high. A Merlin zipping around did not help matters.
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| Merlin - Salinas de Baní, Peravia, Dominican Republic |
Several dozen American Flamingos were present as were a handful of sandpipers including Stilt Sandpiper, Semipalmated Sandpiper, both yellowlegs and Black-necked Stilts.
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| American Flamingo - Salinas de Baní, Peravia, Dominican Republic |
With the clouds moving in and the light fading, we packed up and continued driving east. That night we found a hotel on the outskirts of Santo Domingo.
October 23, 2025
Rain. That was the theme of the day across the southern half of Hispaniola. We considered exploring some coastal areas (at least you can watch shorebirds in the rain), but we had already done this yesterday. And given the weather conditions, looking for endemic lizards in these areas wasn't really an option, either. So we went with the hail-mary option.
We drove north into the central mountains. At least the forecast was only calling for intermittent rain up here and so maybe we would have a birding miracle, and the sun would come out for us to find some Golden Swallows? So in the pouring rain we made the long drive north to Constanza, arriving around 9:30 AM.
Few foreign birders make it up this way since the main target species can also be found in the southwest, and it is a fairly long detour to the central mountains that isn't worth it for those on a short trip. However, Golden Swallows are quite common in the mountains south of Constanza, especially during the first few months of the year when they are nesting. October isn't an ideal month to visit their nesting colonies, though a recent eBird report of a flock gave us hope.
It took a couple of tries but we found the correct dirt road leading south from Constanza into the mountains. The rain which had been heavy for most of the drive had stopped, and we felt a ray of hope. But just like that, another wrench was thrown into our plans.
We reached the checkpoint for the national park and were met with unfortunate news. Because to the hurricane, entry was prohibited due to the risk of high winds and falling trees. Despite our reasoning (it was calm with no rain), we were not allowed to pass. We couldn't even enter on foot to hike up the remaining five kilometres to our destination. And therefore, we couldn't reach the correct area where we envisioned there to be dozens of Golden Swallows flying gracefully through the valleys. Ugh!
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| Birding in the gloom - Constanza area, La Vega, Dominican Republic |
Instead, we parked near the checkpoint and walked down a sideroad that veered off to the west. We found one spot with excellent sightlines and staked it out for swallows on two separate occasions (no luck). We found a single Hispaniolan Crossbill here. This Hispaniolan Kestrel was looking handsome with the gloomy clouds as a backdrop.
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| Hispaniolan Kestrel - Constanza area, La Vega, Dominican Republic |
At least the rain held off for a while and we enjoyed exploring this mountain road. Even with the Golden Swallow dip, we felt like we made the right decision. If we had stayed on the coast we would be dealing with constant heavy rain all day. At least here we could comfortably explore, finding interesting plants and insects.
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| Calisto sp. - Constanza area, La Vega, Dominican Republic |
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| Peruvian Primrose-Willow (Ludwigia peruviana) - Constanza area, La Vega, Dominican Republic |
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| Blechnum tuerckheimii - Constanza area, La Vega, Dominican Republic |
Some chip notes alerted us to a mixed bird flock that passed through the Hispaniolan Pines. For a few minutes, our frustrations about the park closures and rain were forgotten as we picked our way through the flock.
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| Hispaniolan Elaenia - Constanza area, La Vega, Dominican Republic |
There is a resident subspecies of Pine Warbler found in the mountains of Hispaniola. Though we had poor views of one a few days earlier at Zapotén, this was our first excellent encounter with them.
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| Hispaniolan Pine Warbler - Constanza area, La Vega, Dominican Republic |
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| Black-crowned Palm-Tanager - Constanza area, La Vega, Dominican Republic |
We spent a final fifteen minutes or so staking out an overlook before the clouds descended and fully enveloped us. And suddenly, we heard Hispaniolan Amazons! This was one of three endemic species we hadn't crossed paths with yet (along with the Golden Swallow and White-fronted Quail-Dove). Despite frantic scanning and some playback, they did not respond. A few minutes later, Laura was facing the correct direction and succeeded with a brief view of ten of them flying across the valley. Dan and I had to be content with heard-only parrots.
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| Scanning for parrots and swallows - Constanza area, La Vega, Dominican Republic |
We made sure to find some Rufous-collared Sparrows in these mountains as well. This is a very common species across Central America and South America but Hispaniola also has an isolated subspecies. Strangely, these are the only Rufous-collared Sparrows in the Caribbean.
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| Rufous-collared Sparrow - Constanza area, La Vega, Dominican Republic |
The rains then came in earnest, so we made the call to leave Constanza behind and continue driving eastwards towards Punta Cana. We had made the most of our day and were happy to have gotten some birding in, even though we struck out with the Golden Swallows. That's birding!
Dan found an excellent AirBnB on the boundary of a national park in the resort town of Dominicus, so we booked it for two nights. We were looking forward to a more relaxed couple of days to finish off the trip. Perhaps we would have another chance at the Hispaniolan Amazons, or maybe we would find a Pearly-eyed Thrasher here as well.
