Birds (and more) from a brief trip to the Dominican Republic

In early June I flew to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, for a friend’s wedding at a resort on the coast north of the city. Naturally, despite the limited time there and the schedule for the wedding, I made some time for some bird photography, with little regard for the amount of photography equipment I had to haul along with me.

At the resort there was a small eco-park, which was well populated by native, wild birds. These birds being accustomed to human presence, getting these photos was not especially challenging, but it was certainly fun!

Click on the photos if you want to view them in fullscreen (and use the arrow keys to move through them).

Antillean mangos were around if you paid attention, but there weren’t all that many flowering plants around, so I only saw a few:

Antillean palm swifts were everywhere, though, flying around the resort catching bugs, and nesting in the straw of sun covers near the beach:

Palmchats were ubiquitous and reasonably noisy:

Doves were common, including the Eurasion Collared Dove and the White-winged Dove:

I saw a few Yellow-faced Grassquits running around, most notably this one carrying a stick for its nest:

A triptych:

Hispanolian Woodpeckers were also common, and often loud:

Gray Kingbirds were also fairly common, and I even found a nest (that I thankfully don’t need to get anywhere close to with this giant lens):

Greater flamingos enjoyed sifting through the shallow water:

Bananaquits are as common as one would expect in the Caribbean:

Black-crowned Night Herons were easy enough to spot in the brackish water:

As were Green Herons:

Great Egrets were easy enough to find:

The Common Gallinules had recently-hatched young:

Greater Antillean Grackles were ever-present, and not subtle in the least, with frequent loud, harsh calls. Any available food scrap was quickly snatched up.