Tips for free casual birding in Dominica? (1 Viewer)

bugmat · Jan 8, 2020

Hi I'm visiting Dominica for a week and am going to do some casual birding on the upcoming weekend.

Tried my hand at where I'm staying ( canefield) a few days and tried to do some incidentals in Roseau but generally have found the place very dead... Haven't seen more than 4-5 species in any I've place I've been despite acres of habitat and vegetation....

So time to hope an expert can tell me where is a good location is too maybe see at least the endemics like the 2 parrot species and the warbler. I'm hoping to go out Saturday in a rental, and just how to see more than a dozen species in one location! Any help would be greatly appreciated.

pbjosh · Jan 9, 2020

I can't help but have a look at eBird, particularly the species map page and the hotspot browser page:

https://ebird.org/map/imppar1?neg=t...mr=1-12&bmo=1&emo=12&yr=all&byr=1900&eyr=2020

https://ebird.org/hotspots

bugmat · Jan 9, 2020

pbjosh said:
I can't help but have a look at eBird, particularly the species map page and the hotspot browser page:

https://ebird.org/map/imppar1?neg=t...mr=1-12&bmo=1&emo=12&yr=all&byr=1900&eyr=2020

https://ebird.org/hotspots

Thanks - I use ebird but am not too familiar with that tool. I'll try and work it out.

njlarsen · Jan 9, 2020

I have hardly been back to Dominica after the 2017 hurricane Maria and did next to no birding the one time I have been back. However:
The trail to Middleham falls used to be worth while also for birds
Sunset Bay restaurant has hummingbird feeders
The best birding used to be the Syndicate area of the northern forest reserve

see https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Dominica and https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Syndicate

Niels

Edit: Bertrand Jno Baptiste is a great person and birdguide

bugmat · Jan 10, 2020

njlarsen said:
I have hardly been back to Dominica after the 2017 hurricane Maria and did next to no birding the one time I have been back. However:
The trail to Middleham falls used to be worth while also for birds
Sunset Bay restaurant has hummingbird feeders
The best birding used to be the Syndicate area of the northern forest reserve

see https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Dominica and https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Syndicate

Niels

Edit: Bertrand Jno Baptiste is a great person and birdguide

Thanks - I've seen the Syndicate trail from the highway - hope I can reach it. Based on ebird it also seems the best. Very surprised how dead the island seems to be in terms of birds in urban and semi-urban surroundings despite massive amounts of wild untamed vegetation. Saw my first cuckoo today but couldnt pinpoint the type.

njlarsen · Jan 10, 2020

Migrant cuckoos to the best of my knowledge have not been registered at winter in Dominica. Knowing the sound of Mangrove cuckoo will teach you that they are pretty common and occur all the way up the mountains.

Regarding number of birds: you usually have to work pretty hard to find more than 50 species in a month. It is also possible that there has been some re-ignition of hunting even small birds after the hurricane when food for humans was scarce.

Niels

bugmat · Jan 10, 2020

njlarsen said:
Migrant cuckoos to the best of my knowledge have not been registered at winter in Dominica. Knowing the sound of Mangrove cuckoo will teach you that they are pretty common and occur all the way up the mountains.

Regarding number of birds: you usually have to work pretty hard to find more than 50 species in a month. It is also possible that there has been some re-ignition of hunting even small birds after the hurricane when food for humans was scarce.

Niels

Yep it sounded like a mangrove but because I only got glimpses I wasn't 100% but that's what I recorded it as.

I'm really surprised at how hard birding is here, in comparison to several other islands I've been on of similar terrain and vegetation.

Ah well - I'll work with it - no choice!

Tips for free casual birding in Dominica? (1 Viewer)

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bugmat

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