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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

SE Dom. Rep. february 2016 (1 Viewer)

neilh

Active member
We stayed at the Dreams La Romana, a short walk from Bayahibe, for the first two weeks of February. It wasn't a birding holiday, but I settled the wife on a sunbed and did a circuit of the hotel perimeter most mornings.
The gardens were immaculate and just outside the fence was the scrubby jungle. The weather was 28-30 degrees every day, we had 3 showers in the fortnight which lasted about 30 minutes each !!

All the birds seen were seen in or from the hotel, we did 3 trips, the best being to see the breeding Humpback Whales, but I only added GWE and Laughing Gull, both in Santa Domingo harbour.
The birds, in no particular order :

Antillean Palm Swift - everywhere, flocks over the swimming pools using the thatched sunshades to catch food.
Cattle Egret - wherever there are cattle
Snowy Egret - on the beach and rocks
Turkey Vulture - everywhere
Bannaquit - common in the gardens
Hispaniola Woodpecker - loudest bird in the gardens
Antillean Mango - hummingbird in every tree in flower
House Sparrow
Palmchat
Grey Kingbird
Brown Pelican - fishing of the beach
Northern Mockingbird
Smooth Billed Ani - small flock seen once
Yellow Faced Grassquit - common in garden
Magnificent Frigatebird - constantly in the air over Bayahibe
Royal Tern
Prairie Warbler - twice
Belted Kingfisher - over the sea and fishing in the pond in the garden
Hispaniola Palm Crow
Stolid Flycatcher
Shiny Cowbird
Common Ground Dove
Hispaniola Lizard Cuckoo - in the scrub and occasionally in the gardens
Ruddy Turnstone - on the beach at Bayahibe
American Kestrel - Bayahibe
Village Weaver - with their hanging nests
Great Blue Heron - in off the sea
Moorhen
Greater Antillean Bullfinch - in the scrub
Greater Antillean Grackle
Black Whiskered Vireo
Red Legged Thrush
Yellow Crowned Night Heron - in the little eco area
White Crowned Pigeon - easier to hear than see
Hispaniola Oriole
Broad Billed Tody - in the scrub by the tennis court
Kildear - on the football pitch
Northern Waterthrush - on the rocks by the beach
Red Tailed Hawk - one mobbed by palm swifts
Northern Parula
Hooded Warbler
Black and White Warbler
Black Crowned Palm Tanager
Black Faced Grassquit

Also on trip to the local school :
Zenieda Dove
Purple Martin

Hope this helps if anybody else is considering the Dom. Rep.
We really enjoyed it, and the birding was easy and relaxed, some days not much, then others with no apparent difference in weather, birds everywhere !!!
I tried tape luring the Tody for the first time and had 3 or 4 within seconds !!
 
Hi Meih!
And thanks for your great report on birds spotted. I’m new at this and would love to know how you identified so many! My house surrounded by lush foliage so it’s not easy to actually see the many birds we have here (north coast) and would love to learn how to identify by call. Any tips are much appreciated, including an app that is actually helpful.
cheers,
 
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