A Week in La Republica Dominicana 🇩🇴

Apr 1: “Desesperation” and Pain

Andrew, Ryan, and I landed in Santo Domingo around 2:30 in the morning, just on schedule. We had plans to get our rental car, drive north to Caño Hondo, and try for Ashy-faced Owl on the way up. After a relatively smooth luggage retrieval, we made our way to National car rental to retrieve the 4x4 pickup truck we reserved a month in advance. As you might have guessed, it didn’t go according to plan. They claimed to not have the 4x4 we claimed despite our reservation. In fact, they had no pickups available at all. Red flags waved high, as we needed - rather it was mandatory for us to have - a pickup in order to survive the gnarly rocky roads ahead of us. After talking with the agent for quite some time, he managed to communicate with another rental company down the room. This company said they had a 4x4 automatic available for us; all we had to do was pay the difference and the truck was ours. Scared that our trip would’ve ended before it even started, we signed off on the truck without paying much attention to the contract. After waiting outside for another 40 minutes for the truck to be cleaned, we finally had the vehicle in our possession. By this time, however, it was far too late to try for Ashy-faced Owl. We made the decision to try for the owl at a later date and instead book it north towards Caño Hondo, a 4.5 hour drive from the airport. Caño Hondo is home to the endemic Ridgway’s Hawk. This critically endangered species has unfortunately suffered many deep wounds in their population over the years. For centuries, Dominican farmers believed that these hawks would eat their chickens and other small livestock. Unbeknownst to them, the Ridgway’s Hawk’s main diet consists of lizards and snakes near the tops of tree canopies. The Ridgway’s Hawk still has a long way to recover, but we can be hopeful.

As the sun rose on our journey north, we took intermittent stops to listen to the soundscape and take in the landscape as well. We eventually arrived at Caño Hondo at 7 in the morning; a reasonable time. When we arrived at the hotel that the hawks were nesting behind, there was no one at the gate to let us in. Andrew decided to give some gentle car honks to see if he could snag anyone’s attention. While waiting, we birded the outer perimeter of the property, snagging fun life birds like White-necked Crows, Palmchats, and other common species in the area. Someone eventually sluggishly walked toward the front gate, and with our rusty Spanish, we communicated that we wanted to see the Ridgway’s Hawk, or Gavilán to the locals. He let us in, almost unwillingly, and told us to “wait for the guide”. After a 40 minute wait, we knew something was amiss. After some time, we found the man who let us in once again. He told us we had to pay $50 dollars EACH to see the hawk! We knew this was nonsense, as our research of the area beforehand indicated that most people paid nothing or small amounts as a group to see the bird. We decided to wait for the guide longer to hopefully receive a different response. 30 minutes later, still nothing. When Ryan went to go talk to the employee one last time to ask how long it would be until the guide arrived, he said in his broken English “Don’t be desesperate!”.

We walked away back to the car, displeased and irritated. We stood there talking about what our game plan would be. There was no way we could get to the back of the property, and we didn’t want to cause any trouble sneaking back there. That’s the last thing you want to do as a birder in a foreign country. After another 15 minutes of uncertainty, a man with long hair pulled up noisily on his motorbike…holding a pair of binoculars! It was the guide, Juan Carlos. We told him our intentions and he graciously told us to follow him. He offered to look for the hawk together for free and claimed that the bird may not be there since it was later in the day and therefore less likely for the hawk to show up. We walked back through the hotel, sly smirks on our faces as we passed the workers, and followed Juan Carlos down a narrow path that eventually broadened out into a pasture surrounded by mountain ridges. We walked to the other side of the pasture, where he soon played the regal call of the hawk through his absolute boombox of a speaker. No luck. While waiting for any sign of the hawk, we were also able to see more White-necked Crows, a couple Broad-billed Todys, Yellow-faced Grassquits, Plain Pigeons, and other first-time birds for the trip. As we scanned through the masses of Turkey Vultures, we heard the cry of the hawk distant and faded over the ridge! Soon enough, it flew into sight. The Buteo circled a few times high overhead, then proceeded to perch deep in the forest trees, subsequently disappearing through the thick tangles. What a relief! It felt nice to have some sort of win after a very rough early morning. We walked back to the car excitedly and left Juan Carlos a nice tip.

After our morning adventure to Caño Hondo, we had to make another journey to the southwest portion of the country, this time for 6.5 hours. We traveled through unpaved, rocky highways, finding new birds such as Smooth-billed Anis, Double-striped Thick-knees, White-cheeked Pintails, and more. After passing through Santo Domingo, the capital of the country, we continued onwards through small, rural communities. These tiny towns naturally caused slowdowns due to their narrow, one-way streets as well as people trying to sell snacks and other goods. However, we forgot to realize one thing while driving: it was Easter Sunday. In a predominantly Catholic country. Even at 3 in the afternoon, the roads were packed with people returning home from church, visiting family, etc. For a while, we slowly made our way along, oblivious to the mess we were about to endure.

Side note: We later learned that the Dominican Republic is rated the 8th most dangerous place to drive in the world and ranks 4th in the number of road accidents.

At a certain point, the traffic came to a stand still. And we stayed at this stand still. For a very long time. One way highways turned into 2 and 3 lane highways in ONE DIRECTION. There we were: one hour went by, then two…four…The sun started to set and we were still at a standstill. Soon, the locals got out of their cars to take pictures. That’s how you know it’s bad. 3 lanes one way, 2 lanes the opposing side, all stuck in a Dominican mess. At this point, we’d been awake for more than 24 hours, creeping towards 48. We had kept our spirits high as long as we could, but it was finally getting to us. After a few more hours of contemplating life, there was finally some movement on the road. Shortly after, we also finally had enough cell service to see our route update. We still had about 26km of bumper-to-bumper traffic before there was any sort of speeding up. The people of the Dominican Republic are beautiful, but driving there is the biggest, stress-inducing nightmare possible. It is common to have people constantly cutting you off, driving into oncoming traffic just to pass a single car. It’s basically your job to not get hit because they frankly do not care; they will MAKE you move. Road signs are merely suggestions. As we inched along the highway, bikes, cars, and even massive buses tried merging (for absolutely no reason besides ego), narrowly missing our windows and bumper every time. Once the sun fully set and the moon shined overhead, chaos on the road started to ensue. At this point, even the locals were fed up with the abysmal traffic. All motorbikes, and even some cars, were driving fully off the road to try and cut ahead as much as possible. No drivers were generous there; they didn’t allow us to merge when we literally HAD to. As if it couldn’t get worse, there were multiple crashes along the way, making it almost impossible to merge from 3 lanes into one. We also noticed a critical lack of cops or traffic control. What initially was planned to be a 6.5 drive in and by itself had turned into a 7 hour ride for JUST the traffic. Eventually, we sort of accepted fate and decided to cancel our plans to see the quail-doves in Cachote the following morning. We knew that our rest was more important. The strenuous traffic seemed like it went on forever, but eventually our truck (which we named La Bestia) and our empty stomachs made it to the end of the traffic jam, or at least the worst of it. We arrived at Hotel al Mare just past midnight and eagerly got the rest we deserved.

Apr 2: Bolognese, Pauraques & Unwanted Scares

The next day, we drove to ALCOA road, a spot known for getting superb looks at Hispaniolan Crossbill. Once we arrived, it was getting late though, so we decided to chill in the evening, having a crazy good spaghetti bolognese from our friendly Dominican-Italian hotel owner. The next morning, we drove up before first light in hopes to see/hear Ashy-faced Owl and Stygian Owl. Unfortunately, luck was not on our side for either of these cryptic species, however we were able to get close interactions with a Hispaniolan Nightjar. Though it never landed in the open enough to get a picture, it did fly over us multiple times just as the sun started to rise.

After the fun experience with the nightjar, we drove further up the road to look for the crossbills. We birded the road on the way up and subsequently saw some new birds like Black-crowned Palm-Tanager (or Cuatro Ojos to locals), Hispaniolan Palm-Crow, Hispaniolan Spindalis, Hisp. Pewee, and other beautiful species. We waited for the crossbills at a water dish that the security guards said the birds came to drink when the weather got a little too hot for comfort. Crazy enough, the birds never came down the water feature despite us seeing them unbothered in the pines right above us. After a relatively productive morning, we said our goodbyes to ALCOA road and made our way along the SW coast of the country, passing by beautiful aquamarine and turquoise waters. We stopped briefly to look for Hispaniolan Oriole at a nearby hotel, but had no luck. Instead, we had a delicious seafood lunch for very cheap. Next on our list was to drive to Puerto Escondido, a small town quite close to the Haitian border. Here is where we would soon make our arduous journey to the mountaintops of Zapoten.

Black-crowned Palm-Tanager (𝘗𝘩𝘢𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘶𝘴 𝘱𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘶𝘮)

Before, though, we checked into Villa Barancolli and met Kate, the owner. After a lovely home-cooked meal, it was time for some night birding! We had 3 major targets for this area: Least Pauraque (Ryan’s top target), Northern Potoo, and Ashy-faced Owl. Before we even left the property, we heard a pauraque calling behind the hotel! Unfortunately, we were never able to get visuals. We decided to try for them on the road leading up to Zapoten. This rocky, dry road is the only route through the area, so we intermittently saw cars and bikes drive through. I was kept on my toes since we were in the pitch black, holding flashlights, and carrying very expensive gear. It made us quite the target, so I was very anxious. You never know what can happen, especially as a foreigner. We eventually found a small semi-paved trail found by Ross Gallardy some years ago. This tampered trail allowed us to go into the bush, rather than just hope the bird would come close to the road. This would be especially useful for seeing Least Pauraque, which are known to be way more shy and keep their distance compared to other nightjars. After locking our truck, we started walking down the barely visible path. Only after about a minute of walking on the trail, we heard a motorcycle closing in from a distance. After first we thought nothing of it, but we eventually heard the motorcycle come to a stop and the engine cut just before our truck’s location. Andrew and I were hoping the bike would cruise by, but it never did. We then heard faint talking from an individual. This threw me over the edge and I politely encouraged Ryan and Andrew that we needed get the f**k out of there. In my gut, I knew we might get robbed, or even worse. Thankfully, Andrew felt the exact same way. Our internal radars were off the roof and we just had that feeling something was going to go down if we did not act quickly. I devised a plan: we would turn off our flashlights, make our way to the edge of the brushline, then unlock the car as we sprinted for the doors. And that’s exactly what we did. Though we did not ever see the bike, we were certain it was still around the bend. Andrew booked it down the road, and I was constantly looking back through the rear window of any sign of the bikers. We made it back to the hotel and whole-heartedly agreed to end the night short and get even more much deserved rest.

Apr 3: The Crew and La Bestia take on Zapoten

The road to Zapoten is famous to birders for it is home to many unique, endemic birds. But it is also equally known for its infamous, rough roads. The “road” is practically straight uphill, with jagged rocks waiting for a tire to puncture. It’s truly a bumpy mess. Not to mention, the roads are also extremely narrow and sometimes get a little too close off the side of the mountain. As we started our ascent pre-dawn, we tried once again for visuals for Least Pauraque. This time, we went further up the road from our location the previous night. After some stalking, we were finally able to get visuals and a photo of an individual staring intently at us through the thick branches!

Following an arduous, multi-hour drive to the top of the mountain, we eventually made it to “Thrush Corner”, just past sunrise. The elevation clearly stood out to us, with temperatures being quite chilly for the early morning, even for the DR. Thrush Corner is known for being the best location to see (or trying to see) the endemic, secretive La Selle Thrush. This thrush is not often seen, but can sometimes be spotted before sunrise feeding on the road. When we arrived, we heard the thrushes sing a few times just a few feet in front of us, but never got visuals. It felt like the bird was mocking us. We decided to not waste the entire morning looking for the thrush as there was still much to be seen. We continued up the road on foot, as roads seemed to worsen past the Thrush Corner sign.

The ethereal songs of Rufous-throated Solitaires and Western Chat-Tanagers illuminated the forest as we made our way further up in elevation. We were able to rack up many species for our list (mostly endemics) including Hispaniolan Trogon, Hispaniolan Euphonia, Antillean Siskin, White-winged and Green-tailed warblers, and a respectable amount more. At one point, we encountered another small tour group (and our only other gringos of the trip!). Some time went by and eventually we heard more La Selle Thrushes singing. We got really crappy “blob in the thicket” views, but these still felt unsatisfactory. Eventually, though, our patience paid off. While observing a cute Narrow-billed Tody, Andrew spotted a La Selle Thrush hopping around just off the path. We noticed it was gathering nesting materials! We felt honored to watch such a rare bird during an intimate moment. The bird eventually hopped out of view. Though the views were a bit mediocre, we were nevertheless satisfied, relieved, and lucky to witness that moment. As the clouds started to turn a bit dark, we decided it best to work our way back to avoid any potential roadblocks and possible rain. We were satisfied with how much we’d seen anyway, so it worked out for the best.

Hispaniolan Euphonia (𝘊𝘩𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘢 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘢)

Rufous-throated Solitaire (𝘔𝘺𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘣𝘪𝘴)

The ride down was longer and more difficult. Eventually, though, we made our way down with trusty La Bestia, stopping at certain locations in lower elevations to look for other target birds. Loggerhead Kingbird and Bay-breasted Cuckoo (our favorite bird for all of us this trip) were our two big targets. Thankfully, we got both birds with relative ease, and even got to interact with a cooperative Bay-breasted Cuckoo that happened to be calling near a bat cave! We also heard the low hoots of a singing Key-West Quail-Dove, but never got visuals.

Bay-breasted Cuckoo (𝘊𝘰𝘤𝘤𝘺𝘻𝘶𝘴 𝘳𝘶𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘴)

We were absolutely spent once we finally made it back to the main road. We decided to rest up at the villa for a while until we would have to go out again for night birds. Once the sun went down, we went out again. More vigilant now, of course. We took a road bordering an avocado plantation to try for Ashy-faced Owl and Northern Potoo. As we walked up the side of the plantation, we heard hooting Burrowing Owls and got some nice spotlight visuals of them! Our playbacks for the Ashy-faced Owl and Northern Potoo were once again unsuccessful. As a last ditch effort, Andrew shone his flashlight along a hillside across the way. To our surprise, we saw an eye reflection! After somehow managing to get some photos in the dead of night from hundreds of meters away, we realized It was a Northern Potoo sitting cryptically at the top of a dead tree, presumably hunting! At least we didn’t go empty-handed this time! As we walked back to the car, the night sky shone like I’ve never seen it before. Looking at the sky above through binoculars revealed thousands of stars, planets, and asteroids millions of light years away, yet they felt so close and in reach when looking at them through bins. This was a goosebump moment for me. We arrived back at the villa, took a much needed shower, and caught back up on some z’s.

Apr 4: *Tyto screams*

We spent one final morning in Puerto Escondido and knocked out some final targets for the area such as Black-faced Grassquit and Flat-billed Vireo. We were also pleasantly surprised to interact with two more Bay-breasted Cuckoos! After we said our goodbyes to Kate, we ventured back to the roads, stopping by a lagoon to pick up some distant flamingoes. We made our way back east towards Hotel Al Mare, where we would be spending the night again. We eventually arrived and took a much-needed nap. When the sun started to set, we got dinner nearby. Freshly caught and cooked lobster, conch, shrimp, platanos…you really can’t go wrong. After our filling dinner, we traveled up the road to Cachote to try for Ashy-faced Owl. This was our last shot for the bird and we knew it was a must get tonight.

As we arrived at a recent location the owl was seen, Andrew noticed a faintly silhouetted blob in the tree. Unaware that it might actually be a bird, he shined his flashlight. To our surprise, it was a pair of Ashy-faced Owls! Unfortunately, they were facing the wrong way and soon flew off down the mountain-side. Despite some initial frustration, we decided to travel down the road to try for the birds at a different angle. After a sweat-inducing wait, we eventually heard the devilish screams of the owl! We performed some more playback and soon noticed a figure perch in the tree under the moonlight. We used a thermal first to confirm that what we were looking at was indeed an Ashy-faced Owl! The Tyto stared at us with its devilish black eyes that stared into your soul. The owl proved quite cooperative and graced us with many photo and video opportunities. I recorded the second-only video of this species on eBird! We felt incredibly relieved to get this beautiful endemic, one that we could’ve easily missed. After some sweaty hugs, we headed back to Hotel Al Mare to get ready for our final day in the Dominican Republic. We realized we only needed 3 more species to sweep the DR: White-fronted Quail-Dove, Eastern Chat-Tanager, and Ruddy Quail-Dove. We fell asleep to the pitter-patter of a rare rainstorm passing through.

Apr 5: Ramon, Doves, and CT’s

We met our guide and Cachote local, Ramon, at around 6:15 AM at the hotel. We heard about Ramon through Sam Woods, an avid birder and guide that recently passed through the area. Ramon led us up the road to Cachote, a small community deep in the mountains. After a bumpy hour-long ride up the same road we got Ashy-faced Owl on, we made it to a small village in what felt like the middle of nowhere. We started calling for Eastern Chat-Tanager (ECT) right away, as they are most active in the early morning. We were already skeptical of our chances since we weren’t sure how the birds would react with the recent rain, plus our arrival to the village was tardy and we were well past sunrise. After some 20 minutes of unsuccessful playback, we finally heard an ECT deep in the bush. However, to our dismay, the bird only called a few times and we barely got any visuals on it as it skulked low in the dense bushes.

After a while, Ramon thought it best to try for White-fronted Quail-Dove and Ruddy Quail-Dove. He led us up a narrow foot trail adjacent to the village. After a short, but sweat-inducing hike, Ramon threw corn up ahead on the trail. The roosters were the first to arrive, aggressively pecking at the kernels. Ramon made some calls with his mouth, and after about 10 minutes, he slowly gestured to us that some doves were making their way to the corn. A female Ruddy-Quail dove was the first to make an appearance. She nibbled hesitantly at the corn. Then, Ramon tapped his forehead. We all knew what that meant: White-fronted Quail-Dove! Sure enough, one warily stepped into the opening, gently pecking at the corn. As one quail-dove left, another came into view. Then 3! We managed to get fantastic photo and video opportunities, despite unfavorable lighting conditions. I have also recorded the 2nd only video footage of this species on eBird!

White-fronted Quail-Dove (𝘎𝘦𝘰𝘵𝘳𝘺𝘨𝘰𝘯 𝘭𝘦𝘶𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘢)

Eventually, the birds disappeared back into the forest, so we decided to try for Eastern Chat-Tanager one last time. We followed Ramon to the backside of a shed. We tried some playback, and to our pleasant surprise, an ECT popped up from somewhere deep in the tangles! The bird only showed itself for a maximum of 10 seconds, but it was enough to get media footage. That was it! We swept the Dominican Republic! We thanked Ramon for his guidance and made our way back down to Hotel Al Mare, happy and giddy. We then needed to pack, for we had another 3-5 hour drive east to Santo Domingo to catch our flight back home. After avoiding some bad traffic downtown, we had the leisure of stopping at a botanical garden, finding West Indian Whistling-Ducks, Greater Antillean Grackles, and other urban-setting birds. The wait at the airport was unexpectedly quick, and we soon found ourselves downing some well-deserved bottles of Presidente, the national beer. After all, we did sweep the country and went through a lot, A LOT of stress.

Eastern Chat-Tanager (𝘊𝘢𝘭𝘺𝘱𝘵𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘶𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘶𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘰𝘳𝘶𝘴)

Final Thoughts

A big thank you to Ryan and Andrew for being great friends and birding buds throughout the trip. Despite this being our first time birding internationally together and being together for extended periods of time, we got through the tough moments together. We also seemed to be on the same page, but when we weren’t, we were respectful and willing to make sacrifices. I’m very fortunate for that.

A Week in La Republica Dominicana 🇩🇴

A Birding Year for the Books

Elliott Birds