Bird watching in the Dominican Republic

On Friday, we went bird watching in Reserva de ebano verde in the Dominican Republic with our guide, Manny, who runs Explora Ecotour.

This was an amazing experience, not just because of the cooler temperatures and lower humidity, but also because of the amazing birds and flora that we encountered. We also encountered lots of biting insects...bring bug repellent next time.

For me, the highlight of the tour was seeing the Hispaniolan Trogon. 2 or 3 of them, in fact. (It's hard to tell whether we saw one twice. Either way, seeing even one was really amazing.)

For Manny and Lynda, the highlight was the Hispaniolan Parrots, which are exceedingly rare due to a long history of being exported as pets.

There were two types of hummingbirds, one of which is the second smallest bird in the world, the Vervain Hummingbird.

Have you ever seen the second smallest bird in the world pooping?

Now you have...

Another beauty was the Narrow Billed Toadie.

The endemic Black-Crowned Palm-Tanager was beautiful and put on quite a show for us.

There was a Bananaquit, a Vireo, and Elaenia.

This Lizard-Cuckoo was around quite a bit, but difficult to photograph.

Early on, a Red-Legged Thrush put on a show for us.

And then there is the Stolid Flycatcher, who was intent on getting both sides of its head photographed.

Way off in the distance, we saw 2 Red Tailed Hawks. The camera did the best it could getting the photo...

We saw lots of other beautiful scenes along the way. The Road-Side Orchids and various ferns were some of my favorites.

This tree had been marred by a Yellow Bellied Sapsucker. We saw the bird, but I failed to get a picture of it...

Seeing Bromeliad growing in Caribbean Pine trees was kind of surreal. The area felt like north Georgia or North Carolina.

Overall, it was a great experience. The ride there and back was a terror-filled adventure...but that's another story.