BirdLife EBA Factsheet

General characteristics Hispaniola lies between Cuba (EBA 025) and Puerto Rico (EBA 029), and the EBA also includes the smaller offshore islands such as Gonâve, Tortue, Beata and Saona. Politically the region is divided between Haiti for the western third and the Dominican Republic for the eastern two-thirds.

The variation in altitude and climate is reflected in a range of vegetation types, including dry forest (usually 40-500 m, but up to 1,000 m in some areas), semi-deciduous forest (400-900 m, transitional between the dry and rain/cloud forests), rain forest (<500 m), cloud forest (600-2,300 m), pine forest (of Pinus occidentalis, a fire-adapted endemic species predominating over much of the Cordillera Central and the higher reaches of Sierra de Bahoruco/Massif de la Selle) and mangroves in many coastal areas. Savannas include small natural savannas in dry and pine forest, and large and abundant man-made livestock pastures (Harcourt and Sayer 1996, A. Schubert, T. V. Mora and D. A. S. Nuñez in litt. 1994).

Restricted-range species Hispaniola has a particularly distinct avifauna with six endemic genera-Calyptophilus, Dulus, (the sole representative of its family) Microligea, Nesoctites, Phaenicophilus and Xenoligea.

All the restricted-range species occur in forest, often in rain, dry and pine forest. Of these, some 40% occupy forest ecosystems exclusively, and the others live mainly in forest, but temporarily use surrounding open habitat (scrub, savanna or agricultural land). About a third of the species occur in lower areas up to c.1,000 m, another third (notably Turdus swalesi and Xenoligea montana) are confined to the higher mountains, and the remainder can be found over a broad band of altitudes (A. Schubert, T. V. Mora and D. A. S. Nuñez in litt. 1994).

All species which are endemic to the island are included as having restricted ranges because it is assumed that, historically, appropriate habitat amounted to less than 50,000 km². Most species are widely distributed, apart from Margarops fuscatus (Beata Island only in this EBA), Phaenicophilus poliocephalus (southern peninsula of Haiti) and Vireo crassirostris (Tortue Island only in this EBA).

Hispaniolan Crossbill Loxia leucoptera megaplaga, an isolated form of a widespread Eurasian and North American bird, is sometimes recognized as a distinct species (e.g. Ottenwalder 1992).

Threats and conservation Between 1630 and the 1880s the lowland forests of Hispaniola were converted to sugar-cane plantations, and after this time, following the abolition of slavery, destruction of montane forest took place as many freed slaves established themselves in the mountains (Harcourt and Sayer 1996).

Today Haiti is one of the most environmentally degraded and densely populated countries in the world, with forest cover of less than 1.5%, the largest remaining blocks being in the Massifs de La Hotte and de La Selle (Paryski et al. 1989). The Dominican Republic has c.10% of its land forested, but the rain and cloud forests which remain are in danger of further loss, mainly due to shifting (slash-and-burn) agriculture, with what little forest that there is left being very dispersed through the country; dry forests have been altered considerably by charcoal production and there are only a few pristine areas left; pine forests face fewer threats because they are located mainly at higher elevations and are less affected by fires (Schubert 1993). Even the pine forests have, however, been devastated by indiscriminate logging and clear-cutting, and the reforestation with exotic pine species does not necessarily provide good bird habitat (Ottenwalder 1992).

Continuing habitat loss has resulted in seven of Hispaniola's endemic species being considered threatened (though none critically so) and in seven more being classified as Near Threatened. Hunting has also contributed to the decline of Buteo ridgwayi, Aratinga chloroptera (shot to protect crops, and trapped for use as a house pet and for international trade), Hyetornis rufigularis (shot for its medicinal value) and Corvus leucognaphalus (shot to protect crops and for food).

As well as its many threatened restricted-range species, two more-widespread threatened species also occur on Hispaniola: West Indian Whistling-duck Dendrocygna arborea (Vulnerable) and Plain Pigeon Columba inornata (Endangered). Black-capped Petrel Pterodroma hasitata, a seabird which breeds on islands in the Caribbean (including in small colonies on cliffs and in undisturbed montane forests in this EBA), is also threatened (Endangered); the clearance of vegetation by grazing, logging and fires is reducing the quality of nesting habitat and increasing the birds' susceptibility to predators.

There are many protected areas in the Dominican Republic (a network of 22 areas amounting to c.16% of the land surface), but these do not include all the major ecosystems, with many being under-represented or absent altogether (particularly montane forest), and only two national parks having management plans. In addition, several Hispaniolan parks and reserves are small (under 75 km²), and thus have a limited prospect of overcoming threats from development and of achieving their primary goal of the long-term maintenance of biological diversity. In Haiti there are only two small national parks with any significant forest fragments, La Viste (20 km²) and Macaya (55 km²) (IUCN 1992a, J. A. Ottenwalder in litt. 1993).

To address these problems the wildlife service in the Dominican Republic has recently identified gaps in the representation of ecosystems within the nation's protected-area system: 15 new areas have been proposed for protected status including six with cloud forest, four with lowland rain forest and four with dry or semi-deciduous forest (Schubert 1993).

Important sites in this EBA include Los Haitises National Park (recently extended to 1,600 km²), which has wet limestone forest with a wide array of lowland species (including Buteo ridgwayi and Hyetornis rufigularis), although there is some cutting of trees and some agriculture. Sierra de Bahoruco National Park (800 km²) and Jaragua National Park (1,374 km²) both protect threatened species (J. W. Wiley in litt. 1993).

Citation BirdLife International 2003 BirdLife's online World Bird Database: the site for bird conservation. Version 2.0. Cambridge, UK: BirdLife International. Available: http://www.birdlife.org (accessed 9/2/2010)

Note Information presented in this factsheet reflects that published in ‘Endemic Bird Areas of the World’ (BirdLife International, 1998). As such, there may be discrepancies between this information and that presented in BirdLife’s (more recently updated) species and IBA factsheets. We plan to revise the EBA analysis in the near future to take account of these and other changes.