Collaborating with our Partners in Haiti

We have, and continue to support ACSEH, our partners in Haiti, by providing them with field equipment such as binoculars, backpacks, bird bands, and climbing gear. We have also trained them in safe climbing and bird handling techniques to ensure their safety and the safety of the Ridgway's Hawks they are monitoring. 

The local team monitors the population of Ridgway's Hawks on Les Cayemites throughout the breeding season, making several trips to locate individuals and nests. Each year, they have been successful in locating more hawks, and the population is now estimated to be around 30 individuals. In 2023, the team banded the first two nestlings perhaps ever banded in Haiti. At least one of them fledged successfully!

Throughout their range, Ridgway's Hawks are threatened by people, mostly because these hawks sometimes prey on domestic fowl. In Les Cayemites, however, most of the human communities rely more on fishing and farming. But this poses another problem. Some farmers believe that the presence of Ridgway's Hawks means that a drought will come, so they destroy hawk nests and even cut down potential nest trees. The local team is working hard to share their knowledge about Ridgway's Hawks and the benefits they bring to the ecosystems in which they live, in the hopes that people will be inspired to protect them and their nesting habitat. We have provided the team with pamphlets and brochures in Haitian Creole that they distribute among community members.