Caribbean Birding Trail

Know the Caribbean, Bird by Bird

Donate
  • About the CBT
    • Interpretive Guide Training
  • Countries
    • Countries A-I
      • Anguilla
        • Cove Pond
        • Dog Island
        • East End Pond
        • Forest Bay Pond
        • Katouche Canyon
        • Long Pond
        • Meads Bay Pond
        • Merrywing Pond System
        • Prickly Pear Cays
        • Road Salt Pond
        • Scrub Island
        • Sombrero
        • West End By-the-Sea Ponds
        • West End Pond
      • Antigua and Barbuda
        • Bethesda Dam
        • Christian Valley
        • Codrington Lagoon
        • McKinnon’s Salt Pond
        • Two Foot Bay National Park
      • Aruba
        • Spaans Lagoon
      • Bahamas
        • Abaco
        • Andros
        • Cat Island
        • Crooked Island and Acklins
        • Eleuthera
        • Exumas
        • Grand Bahama
        • Great Inagua
        • Long Island
        • Mayaguana
        • New Providence
        • San Salvador
      • Barbados
      • Bonaire
        • Dos Pos IBA
        • Gotomeer
      • British Virgin Islands
        • Josiahs Bay Salt Pond
        • Sandy Cay
      • Cuba
        • Guanahacabibes
        • Humboldt National Park
        • Mensura-Piloto National Park
        • Viñales
        • Zapata Swamp
      • Curaçao
        • Christoffel National Park
        • Salt Pans of Jan Thiel
      • Dominica
      • Dominican Republic
        • Central Mountain Range
          • Constanza and Valle Nuevo
          • Ebano Verde Reserve
          • Hatillo
          • Jarabacoa with Armando Bermúdez and José del Carmen Ramírez National Parks
          • La Joya de San Francisco
          • Loma Quita Espuela
          • Pico Diego de Ocampo, Santiago
        • Southeast
          • Bávaro
          • Cumayasa
          • Del Este National Park
            • Del Este National Park: Boca de Yuma
            • Del Este National Park: Guaraguao
            • Del Este National Park: Padre Nuestro Trail
            • Del Este National Park: Saona Island
          • Ecological Foundation Trail, Punta Cana
          • Limón Lagoon
          • Los Haitises National Park
            • Los Haitises National Park: Caño Hondo
            • Los Haitises National Park: Los Limones
          • Monte Plata
        • Southwest
          • Aguacate and Zapotén
          • Cabo Rojo and Pedernales
          • Cabral Lagoon
          • Cachote, Eastern Bahoruco
          • Jimaní
          • Lake Enriquillo
          • Loma Charco Azul
          • Oviedo Lagoon, Jaragua National Park
          • Puerto Alejandro and Tortuguero
          • Rabo de Gato and Puerto Escondido
          • Sierra de Bahoruco National Park
            • Los Arroyos, Sierra de Bahoruco National Park
        • North Coast
          • Cayos Siete Hermanos
          • El Choco National Park, Cabarete
          • El Limón, Samaná
          • Estero Hondo
          • Loma Guaconejo
          • Loma Isabel de Torres, Puerto Plata
          • Monte Cristi and Saladilla
          • Nalga de Maco National Park, Río Limpio
          • Samaná
        • Around Santo Domingo
          • Las Salinas de Baní
          • Mirador del Norte Park
          • National Botanical Garden
          • Ozama Wetlands
      • Grenada
        • Antoine Lake
        • Beausejour/Grenville Vale
        • Diamond Rock
        • Grand Etang National Park
        • Levera National Park
        • Mt. Hartman National Park
        • Telescope Pond
        • Woburn Bay MPA
      • Guadeloupe
        • Mountain Road
        • Pointe des Chateaux
    • Countries J-Z
      • Jamaica
        • Ahhh…Ras Natango Gallery and Garden
        • Barbecue Bottom Road
        • Black River Great Morass
        • Cockpit Country
        • Ecclesdown Road
        • Flagstaff
        • Green Hills Field Station
        • Hardwar Gap
        • Hope Gardens
        • Portland Bight Protected Area
        • Stewart Town
      • Martinique
        • Rocher du Diamant
      • Montserrat
      • Puerto Rico
        • Camuy Coastal Area
        • Culebra National Wildlife Refuge
        • Laguna Cartagena National Wildlife Refuge
      • Sint Eustatius
        • Pilot Hill
        • Quill/Boven National Park
        • Zeelandia Beach
      • St. Lucia
      • Sint Maarten
        • Great Salt Pond
        • Little Bay Pond
      • St. Martin
        • Amuseum Naturalis at The Old House
        • Étang Cimetière de Grand Case
        • Étang de la Barrière
        • Pic Paradis
      • St. Vincent and the Grenadines
        • Grenadines
          • Bird Sanctuary
          • Mustique Lagoon
          • Mustique Ponds Walk
        • Saint Vincent
          • Richmond Beach
      • Trinidad and Tobago
        • Tobago
          • Kilgwyn Swamp
          • Little Tobago
        • Trinidad
          • Asa Wright Nature Centre
          • Brasso Seco Paria Village
      • Turks and Caicos
        • Grand Turk
        • Middle Caicos
        • North Caicos
        • Providenciales
        • Salt Cay
        • South Caicos
  • Tours
  • Guides
  • Get Involved
  • Contact Us

You are here: Home / Dominican Republic / Southeast / Los Haitises National Park / Los Haitises National Park: Caño Hondo

Los Haitises National Park: Caño Hondo

  • About
  • The Birds
  • How to Get There

Caño Hondo is one of the main entry points to Los Haitises National Park (see also Site D34: Los Limones, Los Haitises National Park). This 63,416 ha protected area is characterized by steep-sided karst limestone hills (or mogotes) with small valleys in between. Karst limestone supports moist broadleaf forests, but at Los Haitises there is also a very extensive area of mangroves where the park fronts the bay.

Among birdwatchers, Los Haitises National Park is known because it is the last stronghold of the endemic and critically endangered Ridgway’s Hawk. Deforestation and shooting have reduced this species to at most 200 individuals, all of which are found in Los Haitises. Even in the park, however, the bird is threatened by loss of habitat as people continue to encroach on park boundaries for agricultural purposes. The hawk’s greatest problem though stems from local people who shoot it as a chicken-thief because they mistakenly confuse it with the Red-tailed Hawk which does occasionally prey on domestic chickens. Local environmental education campaigns have been launched by the Hispaniolan Ornithological Society and The Peregrine Fund.

Although much of the area has been previously deforested for agriculture, the extremely steep mogotes were often left untouched, forming small islands of intact habitat. Typical forest birds include White-crowned Pigeon, Plain Pigeon, Hispaniolan Parrot, White-necked Crow, Broad-billed Tody, Greater Antillean Pewee, Stolid Flycatcher, Black-crowned Palm-Tanager, and Hispaniolan Oriole. Off the coast the mogotes form islands in the bay and are nesting sites for egrets, pelicans, frigatebirds, and boobies.

To visit Los Haitises we recommend making the Hotel Paraiso Caño Hondo your base (see Logistics below). About 8 km (5.0 miles) east of the town of Sabana de la Mar, Caño Hondo is a wonderful place to relax, and is ideally situated for boat tours through the mangroves and across the bay, and hiking trips into the park’s interior in search of the hawk and other landbirds. A stay here will provide nice opportunities to see a wide variety of coastal and oceanic birds as well as forest species.

Birding Areas

Los Haitises should be birded with a local tour guide who knows the area. There are several tour options for the birdwatcher. The first, and most easily accomplished, is to hire a boat and guide for a tour of the mangroves and Samaná Bay. This is by far the most common activity of visitors to the park. The most popular and a pleasant route is to explore the margins of Los Haitises park by boat from Caño Hondo, proceeding down a river through mangroves to the Bahía de Samaná and then stopping at various points to explore caves and trails through lowland broadleaf forest. In the bay look for perched birds on the mogotes which form islands here. This is likely to result in a good list of herons, egrets, gulls and terns. Guided boat tours can be arranged at the Hotel Paraiso Caño Hondo for about $US 50 per person. Boats and guides can also be had at the boat dock or the park office, but you are less likely to get a guide sensitive to the needs of birdwatchers.

Serious birdwatchers will inevitably be interested in seeing the critically endangered Ridgway’s Hawk. Here again we highly recommend guides that can be arranged through the Hotel Paraiso Caño Hondo. The hike to look for the hawk begins at the hotel, and after an initial walk through fields and farmlands, you will begin to climb a mogote. The walk usually takes about an hour; the walk there and back, with viewing time, is about 3 hours. With a good guide you will have a strong possibility of seeing this bird, as the hawk has been faithful to a couple of valleys for at least 5 years.

Other hikes to the more interior regions of the park are available. One excursion on the Sendero del Bosque Humedo (Moist Forest Trail) involves walking thru the forest from Caño Hondo to Caño Salado to take a short boat ride back to the dock. The trail is 3.8 km (2.4 miles) long and takes approximately 2 hr. Another option is a difficult overland trail from Trepada Alta; this often produces Ridgway’s Hawk sightings but it requires the use of a local guide because of the difficulty of finding the trail. Another attraction is the possibility of seeing the Ashy-faced Owl. Although this endemic bird may be found throughout the country, it is nowhere common, and there are not many dependable places to find them. Juan Céspedes (tel. 809-863-7946, Spanish) keeps track of where this species may be found. An after-dinner drive of a few kilometers from the hotel, along with some time spent calling the bird and spotlighting the tall trees, may be successful. Some of the other hotel guides have been identifying locations as well.

Target Species

Brown Booby, Magnificent Frigatebird, Little Blue Heron, Tricolored Heron, Reddish Egret, Black- crowned Night- Heron, Ridgway’s Hawk, Ashy- faced Owl, Antillean Piculet, Hispaniolan Pewee, White- necked Crow, Worm- eating Warbler

Access to Los Haitises National Park is not particularly easy. From Santo Domingo, drive the main coastal highway east towards San Pedro de Marcorís, where you will take the ring road around the city and cross the new highway bridge. Then take the road to the left to Hato Mayor. In Hato Mayor follow signs for Sabana de la Mar. After you pass El Valle you will go through an African oil palm plantation that is known to have Ashy-faced Owls as well as the more common Barn Owls (see Site D33: Monte Plata). As you begin to enter the village of Sabana de la Mar, look for signs on the left for the National Park and Cueva de Arena. Turning left, follow this dirt road for about 8 km (5.0 miles) to a fork in the road; to the left is the Hotel Paraiso Caño Hondo, while to the right is the park’s boat dock.

Alternatively, instead of turning left on the dirt road to the Hotel Paraiso Caño Hondo and the boat dock, you may continue straight on the main road into Sabana de la Mar. Here the main park office is located at the north end of town near the pier where the larger ferry boats leave to cross the bay to Samaná. Here you can contact the park authorities and hire a guide who is familiar with the park.

Cano Hondo (Map by Dana Gardner)
Cano Hondo (Map by Dana Gardner)
  • Reserve hours: none
  • Entrance fee: $RD 100

Los Haitises National Park: Caño Hondo

Dominican Republic Sites

Constanza and Valle Nuevo

Ebano Verde Reserve

Hatillo

Jarabacoa with Armando Bermúdez and José del Carmen Ramírez National Parks

La Joya de San Francisco

Loma Quita Espuela

Pico Diego de Ocampo, Santiago

Bávaro

Cumayasa

Del Este National Park: Boca de Yuma

Del Este National Park: Guaraguao

Del Este National Park: Padre Nuestro Trail

Del Este National Park: Saona Island

Ecological Foundation Trail, Punta Cana

Limón Lagoon

Los Haitises National Park: Caño Hondo

Los Haitises National Park: Los Limones

Monte Plata

Aguacate and Zapotén

Cabo Rojo and Pedernales

Cabral Lagoon

Cachote, Eastern Bahoruco

Jimaní

Lake Enriquillo

Loma Charco Azul

Oviedo Lagoon, Jaragua National Park

Puerto Alejandro and Tortuguero

Rabo de Gato and Puerto Escondido

Los Arroyos, Sierra de Bahoruco National Park

Cayos Siete Hermanos

El Limón, Samaná

Estero Hondo

Loma Guaconejo

Loma Isabel de Torres, Puerto Plata

Monte Cristi and Saladilla

Nalga de Maco National Park, Río Limpio

Samaná

Las Salinas de Baní

Mirador del Norte Park

National Botanical Garden

Ozama Wetlands

Partners in the Dominican Republic

  • Grupo Acción Ecológica
  • La Sociedad Ornitológica de la Hispaniola (SOH)
  • National Aviary

With special thanks to our partners at the Ruta Barrancoli

Ruta Barrancoli logo


Dominican Republic Tour Operators

  • Cúa Birding
  • Explora Ecotour
  • Miguel A. Landestoy T., Independent Guide
  • Tody Tours
  • Wildside Nature Tours

Bird Checklists

Click here to download a pamphlet-sized year-round checklist for Dominican Republic.

Recommended Field Guides

Birds of the Dominican Republic and Haiti by Steven Latta, Christopher Rimmer, Allan Keith, James Wiley, Herbert A. Raffaele, Kent McFarland, and Eladio Fernandez

Aves de la República Dominicana y Haití by Steven Latta, Christopher Rimmer, Allan Keith, James Wiley, Herbert A. Raffaele, Kent McFarland, and Eladio Fernandez

Ruta Barrancolí: A Bird-finding Guide to the Dominican Republic by Steven C. Latta and Kate J. Wallace

Birds of the West Indies by Herbert Raffaele, James Wiley, Orlando Garrido, Allan Keith, and Janis Raffaele

Want to know how you can be involved?

Do you know of a place that should be part of the Caribbean Birding Trail? Are you the owner of a lodge or hotel and want to attract eco-tourists? Are you a guide interested in the birdwatching market? Then, get involved with our project!

Get Involved

The Latest from BirdsCaribbean.org

Twitter
Birds Caribbean
Birds Caribbean
@BirdsCaribbean

Let's make it the #BiggestHourForEarth 🌎 In 60 minutes you can do something positive for your environment 🙌🏽 #Educate yourself ℹ️jco.birdscaribbean.o… ▶️youtube.com/@BirdsCa… Try #birding after dark for 🌌 #owls 🦉, potoos, #nightjars & more! #EarthHour #MyHourForEarth pic.twitter.com/kqjx…

reply retweet favorite
2:01 pm · March 25, 2023
Twitter
Birds Caribbean
Birds Caribbean
@BirdsCaribbean

Just published in the #JournalOfCaribbeanOrnithology 🗞 (JCO) - understanding susceptibility to 🔬 #avian #malaria in Bananaquits. Learn more about this fascinating study here: bit.ly/JCO-Bananaqui… 📸 Carlos H Almeida #peerreview #openaccess #scicomm #Caribbean pic.twitter.com/BUBT…

reply retweet favorite
5:02 pm · March 24, 2023
Twitter
Birds Caribbean
Birds Caribbean
@BirdsCaribbean

The Smooth-billed #Ani is a bizarre looking #bird 🤨, with its oversized, strangely shaped bill and long tail! Anis are almost always seen in groups and do almost everything together, even incubating #eggs and raising offspring. 📸Russell Campbell ℹ️bit.ly/PhotoContest2… pic.twitter.com/zcdD…

reply retweet favorite
6:01 pm · March 23, 2023
Twitter
Birds Caribbean
Birds Caribbean
@BirdsCaribbean

Happy #WorldWaterDay💧 Just like us #birds need water. Sadly, many of their sources are #threatened by #development #pollution & #climatechange But together we can #BeTheChange we want to see & make water conservation a part of everyday life. ✨ ➡️ bit.ly/JA-Backyard-B… pic.twitter.com/xqM2…

reply retweet favorite
3:12 pm · March 22, 2023
Twitter
Birds Caribbean
Birds Caribbean
@BirdsCaribbean

Happy #InternationalDayOfForests 🌳 We're celebrating 🎉 by featuring the Bicknell’s Thrush 🤎 —a shy, subtle #bird that depends on #forests year-round. Both in the US, where they breed, & in the #Caribbean 🏝 where they migrate to for the winter. ℹ️ birdscaribbean.org/2… pic.twitter.com/eN6N…

reply retweet favorite
4:30 pm · March 21, 2023

Our Site

  • Home
  • About the CBT
  • Countries
  • Tours
  • Guides
  • Get Involved
  • Contact

Search

Follow

Sign up for our Mailing List

Copyright © 2011–2023 Caribbean Birding Trail. A project of BirdsCaribbean.