The Hispaniolan Ornithological Society , is a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to nature conservation, particularly of birds and their habitats, on the island of Hispaniola

Hispaniola

Hispaniola is a major island in the Caribbean, containing the two sovereign states of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The island is located between the islands of Cuba to the west and Puerto Rico to the east, within the hurricane belt...

 (made up of the Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...

 and Haiti

Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...

). SOH's mission is to "conserve Hispaniolan birds and their habitats through research, community education, and professional training".

Established in the Dominican Republic in 2001 and incorporated by presidential decree

Decree

A decree is a rule of law issued by a head of state , according to certain procedures . It has the force of law...

 #85504, the SOH was founded by a group of bird watchers and biologists committed with the conservation of birds and their natural environments.

Education programs include promoting bird watching as well as giving presentations on local birds in public schools, private schools, and in rural communities. SOH has also been involved in publishing several books on birds of the Hispaniola, the latest one being "The Birds of the Dominican Republic and Haiti", by Dr. Steven Latta, et al.

SOH has strong relationships with other conservation organizations, with which it has partnered in important projects. These partners include the Vermont Center for Eco-Studies (VCE), the U.S. National Aviary

National Aviary

The National Aviary, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is America's only independent indoor nonprofit aviary. It is also America's largest aviary, and the only accorded honorary "National" status by the United States Congress.-Location and features:...

, The Peregrine Fund, and the Audubon Society of Haiti. Field work conducted in collaboration with these entities includes studies of the critically endangered Ridgway's Hawk

Ridgway's Hawk

Ridgway's Hawk is a bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes the eagles, hawks and Old World vultures...

 (Buteo ridgwayi), nest cavity restoration for the Hispaniolan Parrot (Amazona ventralis), and wintering ecology of the Bicknell's Thrush

Bicknell's Thrush

The Bicknell's Thrush, Catharus bicknelli, is a medium-sized thrush, at 17.5 cm and 28 g . It was named after Eugene Bicknell, an American amateur ornithologist, who discovered the species on Slide Mountain in the Catskills in the late 19th century.Adults are olive-brown on the upperparts,...

 (Catharus bicknelli).

Interesting facts

• SOH is the local administrator of Cornell University
  Cornell University
  Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
  
  's and National Audubon Society
  National Audubon Society
  The National Audubon Society is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation. Incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such organizations in the world and uses science, education and grassroots advocacy to advance its conservation mission...
  
  's eBird
  EBird
  eBird is an on-line database of bird observations providing scientists, researchers and amateur naturalists with real-time data about bird distribution and abundance. Originally restricted to sightings from the Western Hemisphere, it was widened to include New Zealand in 2008, and was widened to...
  
   project (http://www.ebird.org/hispaniola).

• Through some of its members, SOH has the most complete database of bird and nature images on the island, which are used extensively as visual aides for nature and conservancy public awareness.
• It is the Dominican institution with the most members who are fully trained to perform professional studies of avifauna
  Bird
  Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
  
  . The group has several year's experience collaborating and assisting in multiple research and bird monitoring projects, most of them conducted by ornithologists from the U.S..

Books on Hispaniolan birds

• Aves Comunes de la República Dominicana by Steve Latta y La Sociedad Ornitológica de la Hispaniola (Spanish)
• Birds of the Dominican Republic and Haiti published by Princeton University Press in the USA
• Field Guide to the Birds of the Dominican Republic and Haiti published by Christopher Helm in the UK
• Aves de la República Dominicana by Annabelle Stockton de Dod, José Osorio, Laura Rathe de Cambiaso (Out of print; Spanish)
• Birds of Hispaniola by Allan R. Keith, James W. Wiley, Steven C. Latta and José A. Ottenwalder BOU Checklist 21