Dulus dominicus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days >90%
The palmchat (Dulus dominicus) is a medium-sized passerine bird endemic to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (split between the Dominican Republic and Haiti). It is the only species in the genus Dulus and the family Dulidae, and is related to the waxwing family Bombycillidae and the silky-flycatchers in Ptiliogonatidae. Its name reflects its strong association with palms for feeding, roosting, and nesting.
In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the palmchat in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected from the French colony of Saint-Domingue, modern Haiti. He used the French name Le tangara de S. Dominigue and the Latin Tangara Dominicensis. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition in 1766, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson, with one of them being the palmchat. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Tanagra dominica and cited Brisson's work.
While Linnaeus... Wikipedia →
Alarm call0:55
Dominican Republic · 2014
© Oscar Humberto Marin-Gomez · XC214543 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Call1:00
Dominican Republic · 2012
© Leonardo Ordóñez-Delgado · XC103841 · CC BY-NC-ND 2.5
Recording1:07
Dominican Republic · 2022
Kent P. McFarland · iNaturalist · CC0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Los Haitises National Park | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic | |
| 2 | Jaragua National Park | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santo Domingo | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic |
Very likely
About 80% of wildlife watchers report a Palmchat sighting in Los Haitises National Park on a given day, based on 609 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 5th most-seen of the 106 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January–February, May, July and September
In those months about 90% of wildlife watchers report a Palmchat in Los Haitises National Park on a given day, against about 60% in August, the lowest month.
Between 4 and 7 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Palmchat sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 2 parks where we can rate Palmchat sightings, Los Haitises National Park has the highest daily chance: about 80%. Next come Jaragua National Park (Dominican Republic, about 30%).
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Palmchat that you can see in Los Haitises National Park (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are White-necked Crow (about 90%), Gray Kingbird (about 80%) and Northern Mockingbird (about 70%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Palmchat is recorded against all the birds logged in Los Haitises National Park (609 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
