The Cuban Birder No.3

Dear readers:

Fall migration is around the corner in Cuba with the consequent significant increase in bird species throughout the archipelago. Both observers and unscrupulous illegal hunters are looking forward to the start of the season.

The poaching of birds in Cuba is deeply rooted in popular culture, both in the cities and in rural populations. They are hunted not only as a food source but also to be kept as pets and for species trafficking in the country and abroad. Unfortunately, nowadays it is very common to see Cuban Parrots, Cuban Parakeets, Cuban Bullfinches, Cuban Grassquits, Indigo Buntings, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and Painted Buntings locked in cages that are exhibited in public places with total impunity.

In Cuba, we work in favor of the care of the environment from many sides and visions, of that there is no doubt, but it is not enough. The Animal Welfare Decree-Law brings a step forward in that regard, at least in its letter and spirit, but it will be its practical and rigorous application that will have the last word as to its effectiveness. This Decree-Law together with Resolution 160 of CITMA, in force since 2011, should provide the ideal regulatory framework to stop illegalities and reverse the predation process not only of birds, but also of many other species of interest in our country.

However, the existence of legal instruments does not ensure the success of the mission. This must be a collective work, especially of those in charge of ensuring compliance with what is regulated and ultimately of applying the laws; but also of citizens, government institutions and civil society with their activism of denunciation, and work of education and awareness.

Our society has no choice. We must be much more active and aware of the importance of caring for the environment in general, and birds and their natural environments in particular.

United in this and in all the battles ahead, we will all win!

An initiative of Birding Havana A quarterly, digital and free magazine

Director/Editor/Designer: Vladimir Mirabal

Advisor: Nils Navarro

French version: Roberto Jovel English version: Vladimir Mirabal English Proofreader: Andy Mitchell

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Cover photo: Di DTen

Special thanks to:

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The legacy of Juan Cristóbal Gundlach for Cuban Zoology

By VM y Yaro Rodríguez

Gundlach was born in Marburg an der Lahn, Hessen, in present-day Germany. In 1837 he graduated as a Doctor of Phi losophy at the University of Marburg. His father worked there as a professor of mathematics and physics. Thanks to his brother, as a child he learned taxider my and mastered it to perfection. Carlos Booth, a Cuban friend who was returning to his homeland after finishing his stu dies in Germany, invited him to spend some time at his home in Cuba, where he could collect specimens and he accepted.

On January 5, 1839, he arrived in Cuba by boat. He lived first in the coffee plan tation “Fundador” on the banks of the Ca nímar river in Matanzas, where the family of his friend Carlos Booth lived and then in 1841 he moved to the coffee plantation “El Refugio” in San Juan, a place near Cárdenas. It was there, in 1844, when he collected one of the most amazing birds in Cuba and the smallest in the world, the Bee Hummingbird, which he named Calypte helenae, in honor of Helena, Boo th’s wife, killed in the cholera epidemic of the year 1850. The notes of the discovery were given to Juan Lembeye to be pu blished in his book on the birds of Cuba.

He was a meticulous descriptor of Cuban fauna, from which he collected and stu died insects, molluscs, amphibians, rep tiles, mammals and birds. The collections of specimens he collected proved to be of extraordinary value and became a natural history museum in the much-visited locali-

ty at the time.

Gundlach wrote the first major work on the birds of Cuba, Cuban Ornithology and also other important works for Cuban zoology.

His name is recorded in the scientific names of more than sixty species. Its co llection has 80 wooden entomological boxes. They contain 5,497 specimens of 1,705 species, 993 genera, 163 families, in nine orders: Coleoptera, Lepidopte ra, Hymenoptera, Diptera, Homoptera, Orthoptera, Odonata and Neuroptera. Of this collection there is a catalog hand written by him with the descriptions of species and other very complete details, including who were the descriptors of the material, of which 60% are species only found in Cuba. Gundlach is considered to be the initiator of agricultural entomology in Cuba. A section of his insect collection consists of hymenoptera, coleop tera and lepidoptera harmful to crops.

His zoological collections passed in 1960 to the Museo de Ciencias Naturales Felipe Poey of Havana, and then to the Institu te of Zoology (of the Academy of Scien ces of Cuba) which was integrated in 1987 in the Institute of Ecology and Sys tematics. The latter keeps the Zoological Collections of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba, within which those of Gund lach constitute historical collections.

Northern Flicker (Cuban)/Carpintero Escapulario/Colaptes auratus chrysocaulosus

He was never in love; he did not drink wines or liqueurs of any kind: a rare quality in a German, who usually loves beer; nor could good habanos tempt him, and since he had no palate, he drank coffee solely for its stimulating effects. He was also sober in his food: I saw him leave the house in the morning, with nothing but a sandwich and sometimes a biscuit in his pocket, and he used to come back at night without having tasted them during the day, completely devoted to observing the customs of animals or to the solution of some of the interesting problems of nature.

To his tireless and meticulous work we owe the discovery and description of several species of Cuban birds, as well as another group of species that, although he did not discover them, did participate in their description, corrected inaccuracies about their taxonomy or other reasons, and that is why they were named in his name. In other cases, he collected the bird for te first time, that is discovered it, and another scientist made it known to the world, as happened with the Bee Hummingbird.

“I have found it in the surroundings of Yaguaramas, jurisdiction of Cienfuegos; in the plains next to the Pan of Guajaibón, in the jurisdic tion of Bahía Honda; in the pine forests of Viñales, in the jurisdiction of Pinar del Río; in the valley of Trinidad and in the hills of Banao, jurisdiction of Sancti-Spíritus.”

“I found a nest in August and this pigeon is likely to nest in previous months. The color of the egg is the same as that of the other species of this genus. They broke before I could take the measurements.”

“It is a fairly common species in the forests and mainly on its banks and wide paths, as well as in the tombs and in groves near the mountain. It is not secretive, which already indicates its vulgar name, which has in common with the other small species of this family.”

C. T. Ramsden: Vida del Dr. Gundlach, Memorias de la So ciedad Cubana de Historia Natural “Felipe Poey, 1915

(1852) - Palm Crow (Cuban) / Cao Pinalero / Corvus palma rum minutus

Examples of bird species and subspecies discovered or described by Gundlach with commentaries taken from his 1876 publication, Contribution to Cuban Ornithology:

(1852) - Gray-fronted Quail-Dove / Camao / Geotrygon caniceps

(1852) - La Sagra’s Flycatcher / Bobito Grande /Myiarchus sagrae sagrae

Photo: Roberto Jovel

Photo: VM

Photo: Glenn Bartley

“A species typical of this Island, although it is not found everywhere and is only found in the pine fo rests of the western part of the Island. I have not observed it during my excursions to the Isle of Pines, at that time I did not know it, and being in January it would probably not sing, if it existed there, otherwise it would have caught my attention, as happened in the pine forests of San Cristóbal.”

“The plumage is in the upper parts lighy grayish; throat, chest, between beak and eye, eyebrow, ear and edge of the wing yellow; the sides of the body, abdomen and legs, light grayish; wings and tail brownish.”

“The graduated tail and mainly the black semi circle - shaped line from the top of the eye to behind the ear, distinguishes this species from the others of the genus. It is found only in the savannas or on the coasts of the eastern part of the island of Cuba, where only thorny shrubs grow. It constantly searches the bushes for in sects, leaving the male to hear their pleasant and prolonged singing. To this it owes its common name, as well as for its plumage almost the color of the Mockingbird, for its long tail and for inhabiting the same places.”

“In 1858 I was able to compare an individual from the Uni ted States, and then I recognized that our species was new, and described it in the Annals of the Lyceum of New York (February, 1858), with the name indicated, which means “with golden masts,” in the same sense as “auratus,” or “of gold.” So far it has not been observed in another Antilles or in another country. On this Island it is not rare and inhabits more forests than the following species. (refers to the Fernandina´s Flicker)”

(1855) - Olive-capped Warbler/Bijirita del Pi nar/Setophaga pityophila

(1858) – Orient Warbler/Pechero / Teretistris fornsi

(1858) – Cuban Gnatcatcher/Sinsontillo / Polioptila lembeyei

(1858) - Northern Flicker (Cuban) / Carpintero Escapulario / Colaptes auratus chrysocaulosus

Photo: Luis D. Cabezas

Photo: Karlos Ross

Photo: Roberto Jovel

( ... )- Red-shouldered Blackbird/Mayito de Ciénaga / Agelaius assimililis

“Although I met her the first time with Bobolinks, she does not migrate like these, as I thought at first, when she disappeared; and not finding the species in the American works, I did not understand where she would have gone. This question was answered as soon as I arrived at the Zapata Swamp, for there it abounds and nests. It is, therefore, a species typical of the island of Cuba, and perhaps only of the western department, since in the eastern I have not found the species, nor have I heard of it.”

Species named after Dr. Gundlach:

(Lembeye, 1850) - Vireo gundlachii / Juan Chivi, Ojón / Cuban Vireo (Cabanis, 1854 - 1855) - Buteogallus gundlachii / Gavilán Batista / Cuban Black Hawk (Cabanis, 1855) - Mimus gundlachii / Sinsonte Prieto/ Bahama Mockingbird (Lawrence, 1857) - Chordeiles gundlachi / Querequeté / Antillean Nighthawk (Lawrence, 1860) - Accipiter gundlachi / Gavilán Colilargo / Gundlach’s Hawk (S. F. Baird, 1865) - Dendroica petechia gundlachi / Canario de Manglar / Yellow Warbler (Cassin, 1867) - Quiscalus niger gundlachii / Chichinguaco / Greater Antillean Grackle

Foto: Adrián Cobas

Commemorative postage stamp for the Centenary of the death of Juan Cristóbal Gundlach, issued by Correos de Cuba, 1996

Map prepared by VM and Yaro Rodríguez with information compiled from the book by Rosa María González, Un Naturalista en Cuba, Basilisken-Press, 2002 and other sources consulted.

Don Juan was born in Germany. From the age of 9 he had begun to dissect the specimens discarded by his older brother, who was skilled in taxidermic art. He got his PhD in Marbourg. He came to America, I think in 1839, as part of a commission that went to Columbia and Ve nezuela to study fauna and flora. He made a stopover in Havana, where the young natura list was entertained with such spontaneous and warm hospitality that when I met him in his old age, he was pleased to refer to his first years in this country. He separated from the Commission and stayed to study the Cuban fauna, beginning his work in a small farm near Cárdenas, which was provided by Don Carlos Booth and where he soon had close relations with Don Blas Du-Bouchet. When Booth was dead, he was brought to his side by Don Simón de Cár denas, who had known him through Du-Bou chet, and who had sympathized with his simple character, and appreciated his merit, and since then retained him as a member of his family, attending to all his needs. In his workshop “La Ferminia”, close to Jovellanos, D. Juan conti nued the formation of the great museum, which became the only complete one of mammals, birds, reptiles, shells and snails from Cuba. Many years later the Spanish government acquired it for the Instituto de 2ª. Enseñanza de La Habana, thus saving it from a possible loss in its remote location, once its creator had left.

When I met him, he was over 70 years old; he was tall, thin, with tanned skin from the sun, blue eyes, and thick, salt-and-pepper hair. Without being Hercules he was sturdy, as he proved

PORTRAIT OF

JUAN CRISTÓBAL GUNDLACH

Extracted from the “Intimate Notes” of Dr. Enrique López Veitía (Havana, 1847-1910) Eminent Ophthalmologist and initiator of the Medical Congresses of Cuba. Graduated from the University of Ha vana as a Doctor of Medicine. He also graduated as a specialist in Ophthal mology in Paris.

in his long walks, in his hunts, and in the work of many hours which did not weary him. He was clean shaven, had a long nose and protruding upper lip, was somewhat bent and walked tilting his head to the right side of his body. He was agile. I remember among other things that he commented to my wife and to me, that he used once the flexibility of the oars of a Guava tree to jump a swamp. At other times he would spend a lot of time crouching. He lacked a sense of sme ll, which was an advantage to his dissections, which he could do comfortably, even if the piece had gone into decay. Another physical defect he had was deep depression at the end of his sternum, which caused his family members to fear for his health as a child. However, if he was a man of science he studied little. I didn’t see more than a dozen books. He read little of natural history at this time and almost nothing of other matters, rarely taking into his hands political newspapers. His work was practical.

A sharp observer, he pursued the animals in the woods, studied their customs before hunting them, and after obtaining the specimen, dissected it and mounted it in a natural position as he had observed it in life, so that the feathers fell gracefully and gently. As a dissector his ability was extraordinary: in half an hour he left a little bird ready and in double time a large bird.

Don Juan devoted himself to his science with the passion of an artist, but at the same time with a modesty that was innate to him. He ne ver wanted to put himself forward, to stand out among his peers, or to flaunt awards, or to attend public events in which he could appear as the main person. The more retired he felt the happier. When he thought he had discovered a species, he sent to the director of the Ber lin museum two specimens, one mounted and the other a prepared skin, accompanied by a description of its plumage and habits. Thus, the numerous times that the name of Gundlach appears associated with a species, has been classified by that scientific center.

He was so unmindful of his person that the daughter of D. Simon de Cárdenas, lady of don Enrique Diago, in whose family he continued always to live, had to deal with putting the clean clothes in his room for him to change, and other details as a child, as well as he never cared about clothes; Diago had to take him to the tailor. He wore light-colored frock coats called ‘chupas’, which were fashionable in the midd le of the nineteenth century, but that already in the last two decades nobody wore, and a soft hat of black cloth. His shirts were off-the-peg and soft-collared. Don Enrique Diago could not manage to dress him in fashion and with clothes that suited his age.

Don Juan was of a sweet and patient character. I never saw him in a bad mood. His voice was not altered, nor did he use harsh words. Some times it was difficult to understand him, becau se he did not speak Spanish well. He usually spoke little; unless it was about natural history, or to refer to his adventures of hunting, then becoming neat in the details. The happiness of his life was revealed in the affection he had for the

families of Cárdenas and Diago and that he also demonstrated by talking about other peo ple who knew how to understand and admire him.

Enrique Diago told me about the childlike character of Don Juan, proven with details of intimate life, the purity of his principles, his limitless goodness, and his absolute dedication to the natural sciences. His hours of work exceeded the average of learned men, because he had no laziness, no small or great vices.

He was thrifty. He didn’t solicit money from his protectors or work for profit. You had to put some money in your pocket for eventualities, just as you had to dress him. He had no interest in economy, since he did not save. He did not make his art a trade, because he did not appreciate money or feel the need to spend. He told me that the Spanish government sub sidized him for a scientific trip to this island and after two years in which he traveled re searching the central and eastern provinces, he presented an account of expenses that did not reach the tenth of the calculated budget, because friends who really appreciated him, avoided spending. In this and other details the absolute honesty of his life is depicted.

Don Juan was a character. In his long career there was no incident that diverted him from his scientific program. With a modesty that you had to have known him in order to appreciate it, he did not seem to give importance to his original discoveries and descriptions. He did not guarantee the new species he hunted until after sending specimens and obtaining confir mation from the Director of the Berlin Museum. And yet, we know the large number of species he discovered and his competence in zoology.

“This indigenous species is quite common in the forests, mainly in those where there are plentiful shrubes and in the high maniguas. It is not secretive; on the contrary, it sometimes approaches a man at a very short distance as a curiosity, if he keeps the same position without moving. Its food consists of insects and their larvae, fruit trees and even small lizards. His big eyes made him give the name Ojón, his song resembles chiví, chiviú, and Juan-chiví. In the month of April he places his hanging nest under the fork of a twig: he forms it of horsehair, moss, lichen, vegetable wool, spider webs, etc., with an interior bed of fine grasses. The three eggs it lays are white, with dark brown spots, and sometimes lilac towards the thicker end.”

Cuban Vireo/Juan Chiví/Vireo gundlachii gundlachii

Description made by Gundlach, Ornitología Cubana, 1876

His name passes to posterity for his remarkable works and so many collected and described species are just reward for his merits.

Don Juan sold his museum, which was the most complete of Cuban zoology to the government, on the condition that it be established in the Institute of Second Education of Havana, from where it could not be transferred. This negotiation was made under the influence of Dr. Rey noso, Director of the Institute, and admi rer of the German wise man. He was also appointed Curator of the museum. Don Juan accepted the job and salary.

During his last years, when he was wor king at the Institute, I often visited him to see him work and hear him in the museum, and he used to accompany my wife and me to the table, where we enjoyed his pleasant friendship and spoke frankly of banal things, intimacy that helped me to know better his character and draw this portrait.

In 1893, his last “Cuban Ornithology”, of 328 pages and numerous plates, was pu blished in the Archives of the Polyclinic, a magazine that I edited in association with other doctors, in which his observations of 53 years are condensed, whose work was subsidized by the Instituto. The proofrea ding, photographs and bird prints put me in continuous contact with Don Juan. This publication showed the patience and care he put in ensuring that there were no errors in printing.

After this date his health declined, and his eyesight, having attacked the eyes with glaucomatous atrophy of the optic nerve, diminished until it did not allow reading. Being in New York for a long time, I learned of the passing of this good friend in 1896. I regret I did not see him in his last days; but his remembrance has been firmly imprinted in my memory.

Dr. Gundlach limped while walking and me asured 1.69 meters, that is, it was lower than what was thought, according to ostiobiogra phical studies carried out in Matanzas, Erci lio Vento Canosa, Historian of that city, who played a decisive role in the search and iden tification of the body explained to the Cuban News Agency.

Thanks to this study, 24.4 percent of the re mains that were in the Cristóbal Colón ceme tery in Cuba´s capital city were recovered and was transferred in 2020 to the City of Matanzas, where a monument will be erec ted in his honor.

It is an asymmetric skeleton, where the leng th of the right femur is 46.4 centimeters and that of the left 46, the right tibia measured 38.5 centimeters and the left 37, it is curious for a man who walked so much, concluded the study.

By VM

We Cubans are privileged to have the smallest bird in the world exclusively our own, and that is a big deal!

This bird makes birdwatchers and photogra phers from all over the world cross oceans and continents on endless journeys just for the chance of a close encounter with it.

Unfortunately it is no longer distributed as wi dely in our country as it was 100 years ago and is declared a vulnerable species and close to be ing threatened. The main population centers of the species are threatened by habitat fragmen tation, mining development and fires, according to González Alonso, H., L. Rodríguez Schettino, A. Rodríguez, C. A. Mancina and I. Ramos Gar cía. 2012. Red Book of the Vertebrates of Cuba. Editorial Academia, Havana.

This source indicates that the Bee Humming bird is currently located in certain areas of the Zapata Swamp, Guanahacabibes, Sierra de Ana fe, Júcaro, Alto de Cuchuflí, Reserva Ecológica Siboney-Juticí, Cuchillas del Toa, Sierra Cristal, Parque Alejandro de Humboldt y Baitiquirí.

and it returns to the Island at the end of the year. As much as I have looked for it in other places near the coast, in Ha vana, Matanzas, Cienfuegos, Trini dad, etc., I have not been able to find it.

But having arrived in Santiago de Cuba, I found it again, and in considerable numbers, in November and at different points, not only near the coast, but also further inland as far as the Caney. This species also seeks flowers to suck its honey, and catches small insects. Its flight is constant and not in bursts like that of the previous species (the Cuban Emerald); it produces a dull hum. It is also persecuted by the Emerald. Sometimes they fight each other and both climb perpendicularly up to certain height and then fall, each going to different places.

It has, like the Cuban Emerald, certain twigs to rest; and hiding very close to these, I have had the little bird (which is one of the sma llest known species of this family, compo sed only of minute species), at a distance of half a yard from my eyes; and so I could see

Let Gundlach himself describe this species as he did in his Master Work Contribution to Cuban Ornothology, 1868:

“I discovered this species in the mangroves and lands near Cárdenas, and I have found it only in the winter months, disappearing at the end of April. While I was in July and August in the Keys northeast of Cárdenas, I observed it; and so I think she retired in April to the Keys to nest,

how the feathers of the throat and neck move when singing, reflecting in Iridescence the co lors indicated in the description. I say when it sings because it has a pleasant and long song or trill, but proportionate in strength to the size of the bird. I have also seen the male when he is in love, go up perpendicularly with a non-progressive flight, sometimes singing, others not, stop, hover for a moment at the

Fragment of the manuscript made by Gundlach where he described the Bee Hummingbird in 1876

for the female, and then drop down. I know nothing of its reproduction, but I think it does so in the Keys; therefore, I do not know where it nests.

It seems that the male wears two plumages, becau se before February I have not found individuals with their beautiful color; and it is possible that he will get it, like the Arbelorhina cyanea, at the beginning of bre eding.

Description of the adult male in its breeding plumage:

Ruby-colored upper part of the head, cheeks and throat, and depending on the light, appears golden, green, violet or black. The side feathers of the throat very prolonged in the form of whiskers. On the neck, back and rump, as well as on the wing coverts of the wing has a green-gold with a strong blue shade; chest and belly, gray pearl and sides of the breast greenish; tail coverts white with a speck of green near the tip; wings and tail brown, these in the inside and the two middle, entirely metal-green-blue; beak and feet black; dark-brown eyes; a slightly forked tail.

Of the adult female:

Golden-green upperparts with a blue tinge, mainly on the rump; forehead somewhat ashy-brown; cheeks with a spot behind the eye; throat, chest and sides of body (flanks), pearl gray; white belly and tail co verts. Wings brown; tail black, with the base of the outer feathers green, the two outer ones on each side also with a white spot at the apex; the two interme diate ones entirely bluish-green metallic; round tail; beak, feet and eyes as in the male. The female is larger.

Young or adult male before molting:

Brown above, feathers with metallic green edge. The tail is like in the female, round. In this plumage he sings already, and this circumstance speaks for my opinion: that the male has two plumages in the year.”

The discovery of the Bee Hummingbird has been wrongly attributed to Lembeye who published the finding in his work Aves de la Isla de Cuba in 1850. But there is no doubt that it was Gundlach who discovered it and that he sent his notes to Lembeye for publication in the aforementioned work.

More on this topic in the Comment No.4 of the Annotated Checklist of the Birds of Cuba, Nils Navarro, 2021.

Current distribution range of the Bee Hummingbird

Photo: Adrian Cobas

Bee Hummingbird/Zunzuncito/Mellisuga helenae

By VM

According to the Cuban Online Encyclopedia ECURED, the Zapata Swamp is one of the most unique sites in Cuba, where several types of swamp ecosystems are grouped, moderately or little modified by the action of man. Landscapes of low, swampy and semi-swampy plains predominate there, on pea ty deposits and limestone rocks, with hydromorphic soils and vegetation of natural savannas of high aesthetic and landscape value, such as the Laguna del Tesoro and the Hatiguanico river basin, the main artery. river in the area, as well as Playa Larga and Playa Girón. As a whole, the vegetation of the Zapata Swamp constitutes one of the most important green areas in Cuba and, due to the species of flora and fauna it houses, represents a place of world interest. It is the largest wetland in Cuba and the Caribbean and one of the largest in Latin America, approved by UNESCO as a Biosphere Reserve and also declared a Ramsar Site (designated of international importance).

In Caletón, right at the entrance of Playa Larga, about two and a half hours drive from Havana and a little less from Varadero beach, is the house of my friend Adrián Cobas and his wife Ana. It was in 2019 when I discovered the benefits of that area for birdwatching. I arrived to Casa Ana Birding Endemics, the brand name they use to present it on the Airbnb platform, and the first thing I found was a big smile and a fraternal hug from Adrian as if we had known each other forever. In his birder outfit, camera in hand and camouflage clothes, he was waiting for me to go out and explore the area together in search of the endemic beauties that live there. Then Ana’s kindness and sweetness invited me to feel at home as if they were my family. And so it was.

A cold juice of freshly squeezed natural oranges perked up the morning, and when I was re ady to leave the house Adrián looked at me and said: let’s go to the patio first, that’s where this adventure begins. And I couldn’t believe that we would start with the patio when I assumed that in the immensity of this famous wetland we would get tired of walking and see ing endemic and migratory species. It was during February and migration was at its peak. We went along the side of the house and arrived at a place they call “patio” but which is ac tually paradise for birdwatchers. I did not know whether to remain standing or to sit on one of the rustic benches carefully made with boards of trees from the area to admi re so much beauty and diversity of birds. It took me a few minutes to believe what was be ing reveled before my eyes, my were legs trembling softly and rhythmically from the emotion.

Adrián and Ana have been working for years and with a lot of effort to recreate in their bac kyard the most favorable natural environment to attract birds. There are shrubs who se flowers are full of nectar, places of shade, dead trunks with natural cavities, a sma ll arm of the sea that laps against one side of the patio and is surrounded by mangroves and all this within reach of the view from those benches carefully arranged at a safe distan ce from where you can enjoy the panorama without disturbing the tranquility of the birds.

That is the moment when you take out your photographic equipment or binoculars and you start to see that right there, almost at your fingertips, is a male of Black-throated Blue Warbler (Setophaga caerulescens caerulescens) and next to it a female of American Redstart (Setopha ga americana) with a Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria citrea), and a little further back, on the other twig, a Cuban Oriole (Icterus melanopsis). You are still amazed by this as you stumble upon a small group of Tawny-shouldered Blackbirds (Agelaius humeralis humeralis) that dis turb the tranquility with their calls when they come in search of the homemade nectar Adrian prepares and puts in Güiras (fruit of a plant of the family bignoniaceae) halves or pieces of Caña Brava (Arundo donax) distributed in strategic locations.

If you look up a little you can see a Cuban Pygmy-Owl (Glaucidium siju) perched as it rips off the head of its most recent prey that turned out to be an Anolis sagrei. A little further back in the area you can hear the unmistakable song of the Cuban Trogon (Priotelus temnurus temnurus) and at the edge of the mangrove an adult Yellow-crowned Night-Heron (Nyctanassa violacea) pokes its head out curiously and shows its strong yellowish and dirty beak with which it digs up crabs. But the ecstasy reached its climax when a couple of unruly Cuban Emeralds (Riccordia ricordii) passed very close to my head and left in the air a trail of buzzing that slowly faded away. That was the prelude to what was about to happen: with drumroll a young male Bee Hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae) appeared from the left and spent a long time nectaring from one bush to another as if I was not there looking at him perplexed, with eyes open bigger than the Night-Heron. It’s amazing how that tiny bird encapsulates so much beauty and elegance. His flight is subtle, as much as his presence. Without rising much, only about 2 meters from the ground, he goes visiting the flowers he prefers again and again to start again after a brief rest perched on a twig. This young fellow was already developing his characteristic neck feathers that protrude and give male adults an image of fierceness by combining their shield shape with the iridescent red color that distinguishes them.

It was then that I understood why so many observers travel from all continents to the Paradise of Adrián and Anna. It is an unforgettable and unique experience. You can have the world’s tiniest bird in front of you for an endless photo shoot and in a natural environment without comparison.

After about three hours in the backyard we went a little way into the woods that adjoin it and there we saw Cuban Todies, Cuban Bullfinches, more Trogons, a couple of Bare-legged Owls and countless migratory warblers. The truth is that my expectations were far exceeded.

A delicious lunch in a local restaurant helped us rest and gather strength before leaving by car to the Cueva de los Peces to photograph a beautiful endemic dove that lurks there, the Blue-headed Quail-Dove (Starnoenas cyanocephala). With her incomparable beauty of blue, white and chocolate she presented herself as the owner of the place and her elegance was recorded forever in my camera. From there we continued for a while exploring the surroundings until for my happi ness Adrián proposed to return to his particular paradise to close the day. Another two additional hours in his yard, with the Bee Hummingbird and his neighbors, were the culmination of a birdwatching adven ture that can hardly be repeated in a different place.

The Zapata Swamp is unique, and the Paradise of Adrian and Ana a haven of tranquility and peace. Af ter that visit others followed, but I could never help but feel the same rush of adrenaline every time I se ttled into one of those benches and the show started.

Bee Hummingbird/Zunzuncito/Mellisuga helenae

Cuban Pygmy-Owl/Sijú Platanero/Glauci dium siju siju

Cuban Parrot (Cuban)/Cotorra/Amazona leucocephala leucocephala

Bare-legged Owl/Sijú Cotunto/Margarob yas lawrencii lawrencii

Bee Hummingbird/Zunzuncito/Mellisuga helenae

Blue-headed Quail-Dove/Paloma Perdiz/Starnoenas cyanocephala

Birdwatchers in Adrian and Ana’s yard

Hummingbirds are a species of small birds with which many people are familiar. There are 343 species of hummingbirds identified, living in regions throughout the American continent, both in the North and in the Sou th. Due to their large number of species, they are ranked as the second largest family of birds in the world. They reach their greatest diversity in the moun tainous humid forest of the northern Andes, where up to 130 species occur.

Contrary to what some people believe, a hummingbird cannot switch its colors on and off. They have iridescent or structural colors that vary depending on the arrangement of the feathers and the angle of light

Hummingbirds have tiny legs and feet that they use to perch and scratch themselves. The Olivaceous Thornbi ll of the high Andes walks from a flower to a nearby flower to save energy.

Hummingbirds are the smallest birds (about 2 grams for the sma llest species), have the fewest feathers (about 1,400) but have the largest pectoral (flight) muscles proportionally. The well-developed pectoral muscles enable them to have one of the most acrobatic flights in the avian world.

All hummingbird females are single mothers. After mating with a male, she finds a location for the nest, builds it, lays eggs, and in cubates them by herself. After the chick hatch, she raises them alone.

Hummingbirds’ wing beats vary with size. The tiny hummingbirds beat their wings at an approximate rate of 80 times per second whereas the Giant Hummingbird of the Andes does so at a rate of 12 beats per second.

Hummingbirds can live up to 12 years based on banded and recaptured birds.

While it is uncertain whether they use their bill, hummingbirds are very ag gressive to other birds in the air. They chase away much larger birds such as mockingbirds, blue jays, and even hawks.

It is the only bird species capable of flying in all directions, this includes upside down and even backwards.

Its communication system is based on short or long sounds. The latter are usually used during the courtship stage or to ward off intruders. The hum of the wings emitted during flight is also a form of communication.

Cuban Emerald/Zunzún/Riccordia ricordii

Can the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Be Found in Cuba?

By Mac McClelland May - June 2016

Republished on The Cuban Birder under licence from Audubon Magazine and photographer Greg Kahn

Taken from https://www.audubon.org/es/magazine/may-june-2016/podemos-encontrar-el-carpintero-re al-en-cuba

In photographs, the Ivory-bill has something human about it. There’s a sentience to the weirdly alert yellow eyes, an intensity to its regard that, combined with a wide stance—rare in the bird world—reads almost like standoffishness.

In stuffed specimen form, the Ivory-bill looks like a raggedy nightmare. Dead-eyed or eyeless and old, the ones in the Cornell Ornithology Lab’s vault were only depressing to behold when Gallagher and Lammertink brought them out past multiple security doors for the writer to inspect before heading to Cuba. One speci men there, mounted on a piece of wood, was previous ly a decoration out on someone’s smoking porch or something, the feathers weathered and broken down. In the collections manager’s office, another mounted specimen has its serrated tongue intact and extending between open bills, but when the thing was gingerly lifted up for the writer’s closer review, one long toeclaw fell off.

No wonder Gallagher was so thrilled to see a live one tear through the sky in the Arkansas bottomland swamp in 2004. He had been obsessed with birds for as long as he could remember, once in his early teens lying facedown on the ground in the sun of the Califor nia mountains for hours looking dead so a Turkey Vulture would land on him. (By the time the experiment was reluctantly abandoned as a failure, he was so burned and dehydrated that he barely had the strength to ride his bike back down the hill and home.) And then there he was, after so much searching, rediscovering the bird world’s most coveted and iconic ghost species. Or so he, and several other searchers whom the Lab of Ornithology subsequently enlisted to scour swamp fo rests across the South for five years, spending several million dollars, maintains—though the only video they captured is highly contested as proof.

As a teenager, Lammertink, too, tried to attract the close attention of a vulture, attempting first to buy a dead sheep but ultimately resorting to sprinkling a doll in tomato-sauce blood and leaving it under the raptors’ flight path. (This experiment also failed.) He was one of Cornell’s Ivory-bill searchers 10 years ago, but not a beholder of one of the six other sightings named in the paper the Lab eventually published. He still believes his colleagues, but he thinks the bird or birds they saw have probably since died. He is highly skeptical that any Ivory-bills still survive in Cuba, the only other place besides the Southeast United States they’ve ever been known to live: The title of the paper he published after searching here in the ’90s is “Status of Ivory-billed Woodpecker Campephilus principalis in Cuba: almost certainly extinct.” He wrote another piece for the journal of the Neotropical Bird Club called “No more hope for the Ivory-billed Woodpec ker Campephilus principalis.” But maybe, he thinks now, the birds weren’t there then, in the few remaining patches of pine forest where American researcher George Lamb definitely saw (and obtained photographic proof of) them in 1956, the last such universally accepted records on Ear th. Maybe they found suitable habitat in the lowland hardwoods nearby, where maybe they held on until the newly protected pine forest regenerated enough for them to return.

A pair of 100-year-old-plus Ivory-bill specimens at the Felipe Poey Natural History Museum at the University of Havana. Photo: Greg Kahn

On that note: The national park guide assigned to the group at Bahía de Taco, who goes by El In dio, said he saw an Ivory-bill with his father just 24 years ago, right in those lowland hardwoods, where the birds would generally not be expected to live.

And so the group looked there, in the lowland hardwoods. From Bahía de Taco they set out on what Gallagher invariably calls a “death march”: 12 hours and, according to the photographer’s iPhone, 99 flights of stairs’ worth of elevation over often extraordinarily slippery red clay scou ring for Ivory-bill markings or oval nest cavities in trees. It was on that day that they first broke out the double-knocker.

The double-knocker is an innovation of Lammertink’s own design and construction. An online video documents him using it to attract another Campephilus woodpecker, the Pale-billed, which exists from Mexico to Panama, strapping the small wooden box to a tree with rope, pulling out a contraption made of two dowel rods that he sways back then swings into the box, one dowel and then the other making contact, mimicking the distinctive Campephilus sound: BAM-bam. In the video, recorded in Costa Rica, he does this, and then, from a distance: A Pale-billed knocks back!

In the forest near Bahía de Taco, Lammertink trudged off the path beaten for park visitors and through the brush up an incline, finding a pine tree in a growth of quebrahachas, the type of tree El Indio said were dominant where he had his sighting not far from there. Everyone stood silently as Lammertink prepared. He pulled out the box. He strapped it up. He set the dowel con traption on top of it. He opened his notebook. He marked down the time and GPS coordinates. He pulled out an MP3 player attached to a speaker wrapped in camouflage. And then, after much such settling in, he swayed back, and struck.

BAM-bam.

Everyone was silent.

Lammertink looked around slowly. He waited 22 to 23 seconds, checking his watch, then struck again. BAM-bam.

He waited. He struck again.

And again.

After 10 double-knocks, he put the dowels down, picking up his MP3 player and speaker. He scrolled through his playlist, then pressed play, holding the speaker aloft as the recording of an Ivory-bill, the only existing recording of an Ivory-bill, from 1935, played, underlain by heavy sta tic. People say it sounds like a horn. Or a baby goat. Kent. Kent-kent. Lammertink turned in slow circles blasting it, and Gallagher kept his ears alert as the sound played for 90 seconds. Then he turned it off, and waited.

Lammertink tries to call in an Ivory-bill in the forest near Bahía de Taco.

Photo: Greg Kahn

He put his hands on his hips. He checked his watch. Gallagher didn’t move. Then they started the process over, in the same spot. BAM-bam.

A double-knock session takes about 30 minutes. With other Campephilus species, Lammertink has waited as long as 20 minutes afterward for them to respond to a call. When he thought they’d waited long enough this time, the group all sitting and standing silently there in the forest, they picked up the bags and waters and cameras they’d set down and took off again, hiking 500 meters farther into the forest to try again. The call carries at least half that far, so to maximize exposure in the limited amount of time available to any one man, Lammertink spaces them out thusly. After the second session, they hiked another 500 meters, and tried again.

Those 30 minutes, knocking and waiting the third time, it was getting late in the day. It was hot, and mosquitos landed on the motionless party. At some point, the photographer wandered off a bit. Gallagher sat down farther back on the path and rested. The writer practiced her yogic Moun tain Pose. A huge bird suddenly broke through the trees and soared into view, sweeping and grand and even with some white underside. But it was only a Turkey Vulture, buzzing close to remind them that life is fleeting.

There have been times when Lammertink used the double-knocker in places where he knew for a fact Campephilus woodpeckers were nearby (-slash-existed), and they didn’t respond. To get one to do so on this trip in a territory this large, he conceded to the photographer, would be very lucky. To not get one proves nothing.

So: There is not a moment to waste. Not in Ba hía de Taco double-knocking, and especially not after Lammertink walked to El Indio’s father’s house and interviewed him and asked him what sound the Ivory-bill had made when he saw the bird with his son 24 years ago and the man made the wroooong, very wrong sound of a different bird, and the wrong wing description to boot. As El Indio was only seven at the time, his recollec tion likely colored by his father’s identification of the species, both of the accounts of these two—the only two—witnesses to the exciting possibility that the Ivory-bill did or could live in non-pine forest in eastern Cuba were therefore called into question.

It was a disappointing development, one that Lammertink would henceforth refer to as “The Twist.”

So not a moment to waste getting out of Bahía de Taco—though the forest there was chockful of other species sightings: Scaly-naped Pigeon and Cuban Trogon and Stygian Owl; Cuban Ama zon, Cuban Pewee, West Indian Woodpecker, Cuban Tody, Cuban Solitaire, Great Lizard-Cuckoo, Black-and-white Warbler, Cuban Green Woodpecker. Not a moment to waste getting to Guantánamo and getting permission—no time to care or alert the authorities about the endan gered parrot being kept illegally caged on the floor of the kitchen in the restaurant where they ate in town—and getting back out to push up the mountain, not a moment to wait for a new day with more light remaining and less chance of rain or a fully fixed vehicle that might not die when it gets stuck.

Lammertink’s camouflaged audio feedback device plays bird calls. Photos: Greg Kahn

That night, after hours of human pushing and oxen pulling, the jeep is freed. And with more pushing and pulling, it is rolled backward, and pop-started. But it cannot make it up the now rain-slicked mountain rock, though the driver tries for a terrifying 20 minutes with all the equi pment and group again loaded inside. There is a Cuban military outpost a ways back down; the group makes its way there in the downpour, in the dark, and begs a patch of concrete floor to sleep on in a dwelling containing what Gallagher will refer to for the rest of the trip and maybe the rest of his life as The Worst Toilet in the World.

“This will be a great story to tell later,” he keeps saying. He’s been saying this for six days. He will continue to say it for eight more. But the writer is in no mood to agree with the principle that a good story is better than a good time, partly because she has become afflicted with diarrhea—the group has concluded that there must have been an accidental ingestion of a drop from the Bahía de Taco vat of river water—but also because people (read: men) who constantly tell stories of bad times are tedious, and she is basically certain she could write an equally compelling scene if this Cuban restricted-jungle military outpost in the mountains above Guantánamo had turned out to be home to a team of scrappy dogs attired in miniature formalwear and trained to serve cocktails to visitors—which would be a good time—rather than a toilet that in addition to being The Worst has no door to separate anyone who’s using it from her comrades.

Earlier, the photographer sidled next to the writer and asked, as they both turned their faces away from the merciless beating of the oxen, a patch of protected Cuban forest being deforested with the tearing down of ever-larger branches and trees with which to assault them, “Do you ever wonder if this is all worth it? For a bird?” The two of them snickered darkly. Just moments befo re, a chunk of wood had cracked off an oxen-beating club as it broke over the animal’s hide and shot past the photographer’s head, missing him by maybe an inch. “One that almost definitely doesn’t exist?”

“There is definitely a subset of people who are driven to this,” famed birder and Pulitzer finalist Scott Weidensaul will later explain to the writer. There are birders (and other field biologists), he will say, who are driven to the extent of, “Let’s save 45 minutes of field time tomorrow by finishing this hike tonight in the dark, even though we may fall and break our necks.” He has himself made “really bad decisions,” he says, for which he could have died. Even in the absence of bad decisions, outcomes can be fatal. Ted Parker, another famed birder, did die, along with premier neotropical botanist Alwyn Gentry and leading Ecuadoran conservationist Eduardo As piazu Estrada, in a plane crash doing a treetop survey; so did Phoebe Snetsinger, then the most prolific birder in history, when her van rolled in Madagascar. Nathaniel Gerhart died in 2007 in a car accident in Indonesia—three years after he discovered previously unknown habitat of the Selva Cacique—and so did Siarhei Abramchuk in 2010, from an encephalitis-bearing tick bite in Belarus. Subramanian Bhupathy, head of conservation biology at the Sálim Ali Centre for Orni thology and Natural History in India, died in 2014 after slipping down a hill and landing with a bamboo spike in his eye.

“I’m not saying that that’s a decision I would necessarily make,” Weidensaul will say of the hypo thetical dangerous night hike. Though “part of that just becomes if you’ve gotten away with it in the past, you assume you’re gonna get away with it in the future,” he’s taking fewer risks now. But “I certainly understand what drives somebody to make that kind of a decision. Just this driving passion to push yourself to the limit because you don’t know what’s on the other side of the next hill. Because you don’t know what you’re gonna find, and if at the end of the day you haven’t done everything you possibly can, you leave yourself wondering: Well, what if I had?”

to be continued...

THE

beyond a simple preference

By VM

With the collaboration of Alejandra Prado**

Searching through social networks I found an artist who attracted my interest in his digital illustrations of birds, because they are simply different. And in them there is a lavish mixtu re of realism and fantasy that, in my opinion, is worth appreciating carefully. Then I decided to find out who is the person behind them and the story of this man seemed to me a wor thy example of strength in what is believed, of wanting to leave the personal universe to pour knowledge and education on others and, at the same time, of commitment to his land, his va lues and unconditional love for birds in freedom. And all this has been achieved in open defiance of a health condition that does not favor him.

José Manuel Victoria, Colombian by birth, bird watcher and photographer at heart, (although he does not consider himself a professional), creates illustrations with various computer programs to faithfully reproduce the wonderful world of birds.

As José Manuel tells me, almost 40 years ago he began to be dazzle with the songs, colors and sha pes of our winged friends, and began to illustrate them in a traditional way. But about 20 years ago, he began to notice a hereditary condition (essential tremor), which causes involuntary and rhythmic movements of his hands, a disorder that hindered his ability to paint, illustrate and even write and of course makes the process of photography very difficult; but this did not take away his love for birds or photography. Challenged with the impossibility of continuing to illustrate in a traditional way and taking advantage of his knowledge in gra phic design, he decided to “reinvent himself” and to turn his illustrations into graphics, tr ying to be as faithful as possible to the bird at the right moment in which it was photographed. But in 2006 he arrived at the Corregimiento de La Buitrera, a small town on the outskirts of the department of Valle del Cauca, in Colombia, and realized the great wealth of birds present in this piece of the Central Mountain Range. Here his work took on a different and much broader dimension.

The artist explains that everything starts from a photograph. Taking into account the lighting, the position of the bird, the background, trees, that there are no obstructions between the lens and the bird and countless other factors, which determine that this is perfect for illustration, because even the smallest detail makes it special or ruins it.

Once the desired photo is achieved, it is added, transferred to the computer and cropped in Pho toshop, this cropping requires several steps. Once this image is cropped, several filters are applied through other programs such as Painter and Topaz. After applying these filters, which emulate oil, the image is cropped again, so that it is in a transparent layer, and with several Photoshop “brushes”, the plumage is defined, its environment and each detail is corrected feather by feather.

As you can see, the only thing that is preserved from the original photograph is the eye, which is what gives the realistic illusion to the graphic. In addition to this, for the creation of each graphic, he has a store of reference images, such as branches, stones, trunks, water, trees, etc., which works under the same technique and are used to create the final composition. Once the compo sition is achieved and after many layers of Photoshop and with several “brushes “ the shadows

and other effects are painstakingly created to give it a deeper realism.

José Manuel confessed to me that he always wanted to make a publication regarding the birds of Colombia, in order to make known not only to his own community but to the whole world the treasure that accompanies them. Birds for José Manuel are in a way beings that generate pea ce, hope and inspiration. “Observing and analyzing them enriches the soul. They teach us that they are not only beautiful organisms, but supremely important ones to analyze the health of an ecosystem and if we look at them more closely, we realize that they are smarter than we thou ght.”, he judged.

Although the creation of bird graphics is more for ecological contribution and environmental awareness, his personal goal is to use this technique to create unconventional graphics, showing as main focus: the subject, the birds. Through the use of these tools, and this being a different way of creating bird art, in the future he would like to do online workshops on how to create this style of digital graphics.

José Manuel’s dream is to continue and finish the field guide of “Tanagers of Colombia” and “Hummingbirds of Colombia” through this technique. Although the road is long, it aspires to complete two field guides and a book of illustrations of birds of Colombia. It was also clear to me that he intends to continue working tirelessly when he said: “Why not dream of developing works with other entities to make graphic contributions to all those who celebrate the fauna and flora of this planet?”

“If we don’t know our wealth, we won’t know how to protect it, much less how to develop and implement strategies that favor us as a region.”

Birdwatching tourism to Colombia is in its infancy, the artist pointed out, but with the sacrifice and contribution of those few who birdwatch for their love of nature and not so much for econo mic reward, a way to stay focused will be achieved, and over time much more will be conquered as an ecological contribution through art, until achieving greater participation of all. If as a con sequence, we can generate some income with this contribution, it will be welcome.

We live in difficult times, humanity is a little lost and the planet is experiencing changes that affect all who inhabit it. Raising human awareness of the importance of all the organisms that inhabit it is his main motivation. Create art for everyone, so that although they have never had a moment to look carefully at birds, when seeing a publication of them with this style of graphics, as being something different, anyone can appreciate birds in a new way, fall in love with them, and thus multiply the awareness of how important it is to protect and preserve them.

More illustrations by this artist can be enjoyed on his IG social networks: @josemvictoria and FB @ BirdingNerd

** Alejandra Prado is her partner of a thousand battles.

To my Cuban brothers admirers of birds, a hug and let us continue celebrating and ma king known the birds of the world. Cuba, with one of the most beautiful trogons of all, is a place I want to visit. Thank you for sharing this passion! Thank you for the honor of being a part of you!

Greetings from Colombia, José Manuel

HOTSPOTS

FOR BIRDING IN HAVANA (OUTSKIRTS)

By VM

We continue the tour of the city that we started in the last edition of the magazine, but this time we will move away from the coastal areas to reach the green environments closest to the limits of Ha vana with the neighboring provinces of Artemisa and Mayabeque.

The most important area for bird watching on the outskirts of the Cu ban capital is, without a doubt, the one occupied by Lenin Park and the National Botanical Garden. To get to both places it is best to take Calle 100 from Marianao or the Primer Anillo from the municipality of Boyeros to the east or from El Cotorro to the West. You can also travel from the city center by Calzada de 10 de Octubre to the south. There are several public transport routes that take us to this area such as routes 113, 170, 88, A10 and PC, among others, plus several coope rative and private taxis. The tour of Lenin Park is free, but in the Bo tanical Garden you have to pay an entrance fee of 5 CUP per person.

Already inside the Lenin Park there are three main areas of inte rest for observers: the Embalse Ejército Rebelde and its surroun dings; the area of the Pioneers Palace, the Amusement Park, the Equestrian Area and the woodlands that reach the north bank of the Embalse Paso Seco; and if we continue south we will find pat ches of pine trees and secondary vegetation on the other side of this reservoir, which extends to the area of the monument to Vla dimir Ilich Lenin. You can not really do this tour in a single day, so we recommend choosing one of the areas and explore it dee ply to take advantage of the best hours of the day for observation.

Throughout the year you can see in Lenin Park a good number of permanent resident and endemic species such as the West In dian and Cuban Green Woodpeckers, Cuban Vireos, Great Lizard Cuckoos, Red-tailed Hawks and Broad-winged Hawks, Ospreys, American Kestrels (white and red morphs), White-crowned Pigeons, White-winged Doves, Cuban Pewees, La Sagra´s Flycatchers, among others, until reaching around 100 species. Of course, in the migration periods, between August and May, the numbers are higher due to the presence of about 20 different species of war blers and other species that visit us. If we are lucky and patient, we may stumble upon the Baltimore Oriole, the Orchard Orio le, Cuban Todies, Northern Bobwhites and Ruddy Quail-Doves.

The Paso Seco and Ejército Rebelde reservoirs deserve special attention for the presence there of a great variety of water birds throu ghout the year, especially during migration. On a morning of bird watching it is possible to enjoy the active presence of Brown and American White Pelicans, herons like Snowy, Tricolored, Blue, Re ddish, Great Blue and Great Egret. Also several species of ducks, swallows, swifts and coots. The highest historical counts are for Ring-necked Ducks, Ruddy Ducks, Blue-winged Teals and Lesser Scaups; as well as Brown Pelicans and Neotropic Cormorants. If we sharpen our senses, especially the ear, we can identify some Black Rails or Soras.

A little further south we have the National Botanical Garden, which

Cuban Blackbird/Totí/Ptiloxena atroviolacea

Cuban Pewee/Bobito Chico/Conto pus caribaeus

Brown Pelican/Pelícano/Pelecanus occidentalis

also has a small lake in the Japanese Garden, which we could cover in a single day, but it would be quite tiring. It is better to explore it in several sessions to take full advantage of the benefits it offers to the observer. Many of the forest species of Lenin Park and some aquatic ones are repeated here. However, there are two species that distinguish the Botanical Gar den from other nearby places, Gundlach’s Hawk and Olive-capped Warbler. They are not easy to spot, but with effort, patience and skill we could take the prize of two important sightings for every lover of the Cuban avifauna. There are also reports of several rare migratory species such as the Mississippi Kite, the Cedar Waxwing, the Pine Warbler and the Chipping Sparrow.

In addition to these two magnets of interest for birdwatching in the limits of the city, there are other places still little explored, especially towards the south in the vicinity of Managua and to the west by the area of Barreras, Minas, Campo Florido and the reservoirs Bacuranao, La Coca, La Zarza, among others.

There is much left to explore in our capital, but fortunately every day we are more and more who go out on a birdwatching excursions to be in direct contact with nature. Have you planned your next outing yet?

Top 3 Best Ultra Zoom Bridge Digital Cameras for Birding

For bird watching it is not necessary to always carry a camera, a pair of binoculars is enough in most cases; But if we have a camera with us it is much better because we can obtain irre futable proof of the sighting (as long as the photo is of good enough quality, of course!). It is not necessary to have an SLR camera. Today there are very good alternatives that lighten the weight that the observer must carry for hours in the field, and they deliver exceptional image and video quality. Here I present the 3 that, in my opinion, are the best of their class.

1. Sony Cyber-Shot RX10 IV

The Sony Cyber-shot RX10 IV features a 25x optical zoom lens, with a bright f/2.4 to f/4.0 aperture, and a zoom range equivalent to 24 to 600mm in 35mm terms. The came ra features a “stacked” 20 megapixel BSI CMOS sensor, with phase detection focus, and the camera offers 24fps high-speed continuous shooting as well as high-speed video, and ultra-fast focus speeds. The ca mera is weather-sealed, making it suitable for use in inclement weather. Wi-Fi, NFC and Bluetooth are built-in.

Key Features at a glance: 20.1megapixel 1inch BSI CMOS sensor, 25x optical zoom lens, f/2.4-4.0, 24-600mm equivalent (in 35mm terms), 4K video recording, hi gh-speed video, 24fps continuous shoo ting, 3inch tilting touch-screen and elec tronic viewfinder (EVF), Wi-Fi, NFC and Bluetooth.

2. Panasonic Lumix FZ2000

The Panasonic Lumix FZ2000 features a 20-megapixel 1inch sensor, 20x optical zoom lens equivalent to 24-480mm with an f/2.8-4.5 aperture and it’s designed to be a hybrid video/ photo camera, recording unlimited 4K / CINE 4K video. Build quality is very good and the camera has a lot in common with the Panaso nic Lumix GH4, which means that the FZ2000 would make an excellent second camera to anyone familiar with Panasonic’s other cameras. The camera has a great 3inch vari-angle touch-screen, as well as a large, bright, high-resolution electronic viewfinder, with a comfortable rubber surround. Image quality is generally good and the camera offers impres sive focus performance.

Key Features at a glance: 20.1megapixel 1inch CMOS sensor, 20x optical zoom lens, f/2.8-4.5, 24-480mm equivalent (in 35mm terms), unlimited 4K / CINE video recording, 12fps continuous shooting, 3inch vari-angle touch-screen and electronic viewfinder (EVF), and Wi-Fi.

By VM with info and images from www.ephotozine.com

Coolpix P1000

The Nikon Coolpix P1000, quite literally, reaches for the moon and stars with one of the biggest and most in your face optical zoom we’ve ever seen! However, this comes with a number of unavoidable issues which includes the size and weight of the camera, needing a tripod for anything over 2000mm and rather poor battery life. However, for bragging rights alone, this camera knocks it out of the park, offering a 24mm to 3000mm equivalent zoom lens.

As for the price, it’s a lot of cash to spend and this is even more so when you look at what’s on offer at almost half the price, such as the Nikon Coolpix P900.

Overall, the Nikon Coolpix P1000 offers a huge amount of reach but the price, the need for a tripod (ideally) over 2000mm and its size/weight, means the rest of the camera is likely to not be for everyone. For some, the huge size of the camera will immediately deter using the camera.

If you are most interested in having an extra large zoom to identify birds in the distance, this is your best option, but if it is the image quality you are looking for, then the two previous cameras will give you more possibilities than this one.

Key Features at a glance: 16megapixel BSI CMOS sensor, 125x optical zoom lens, f/2.88, 24-3000mm equivalent (in 35mm terms), 4K video recording, 7fps continuous shooting, 3.2inch vari-angle screen and electronic viewfinder (EVF), Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.

In addition to these three cameras, there are other excellent ones such as Nikon P900, Panasonic Lumix FZ330, Canon SX70 HS that were manufactured a few years ago so they are in a more favorable ranking in terms of value for money.

taken from Audubon.org

One of the many extraordinary traits birds have is their sleep pattern. Yes, birds do sleep, but they don’t sleep like mammals do. Birds share with mammals the cycles of Non-rapid Eye Movement sleep and Rapid Eye Movement sleep; however there are differences. The first difference is that both cycles are shorter; Non-rapid Eye Movement sleep averages around two and a half minutes and Rapid Eye Movement sleep about nine seconds. Birds also sleep with onehalf of their brain awake! It’s called unihemispheric slow-wave sleep and keeps birds alert to potential predators while still catching some Zs. Other animals sleep this way, but only birds have the ability to control it. A sleeping bird can adjust how much of its brain is asleep by how wide it opens or closes its eye.

Another difference in a bird’s sleep pattern is that it will not lose much muscle tone when in deep sleep. It doesn’t matter if the bird is a species that stands, perches, roosts, lays down on the ground, swims, or hangs upside down (yes, these are all real sleeping positions). A bird fluffs up its feathers to better cover its body when sleeping in order to keep its body temperature high. The bird will also experience thermogenesis, and some birds take this one step farther in cold temperatures by making themselves undergo a controlled hypothermia called “nocturnal torpor.”

Researchers still don’t have the complete answer to how migrating birds sleep, though several studies have tried. One focused on Swainson’s Thrushes and discovered that Swainson’s Thrushes take hundreds of daytime naps to make up for no nighttime sleep. Birds like ducks and geese that fly in J and V for mations will use unihemispheric slow-wave sleep when not in the head of the group.

From eBird.org

What is an eBird Hotspot?

Hotspots are public birding locations crea ted by eBird users. Hotspots allow multiple birders to enter data into the same shared location, creating aggregated results availa ble through eBird’s “Explore” tools.

Playa del Chivo, Havana

What makes a good eBird Hotspot?

There are several criteria you should consider before nominating a location as a Hotspot (see more below):

• Is the location open to the public?

• How large is the area encompassed by the Hotspot?

• How easily defined or identified are the Hotspot’s boundaries?

Aim for hotspots that represent specific, well-defined locations. A Hotspot that is small, with ea sily defined boundaries, is “spatially explicit” - meaning it is easier for scientists to know exactly where you saw birds, and associate those sightings with habitat information. Also, the larger or more general a Hotspot is, the harder it is for all birders to use it in a consistent manner.

Does a Hotspot need to have lots of birds?

No! It is not necessary for a “Hotspot” to be an outstanding location for birds or birding. Hots pots represent a set of public locations that people regularly visit for birding, regardless of how amazing they are for birds. The primary requirement of a Hotspot is that it is publicly accessible, so avoid places like your yard or other private property.

How do I choose the right Hotspot for my checklist?

When selecting a location for your checklist on eBird Mobile or eBird.org, the map will display nearby Hotspots as red markers with flame icons inside. Tap or click on one of these markers to see that Hotspot’s name.

To decide if a nearby Hotspot is appropriate for your checklist, answer this simple question: Was my entire eBird checklist restricted to the area described by the Hotspot name?

If the Hotspot’s name accurately and precisely describes your location for the entire checklist, then it’s OK to use that Hotspot for your checklist. However, if any part of your checklist occurred somewhere not adequately described by the chosen Hotspot, please use either a personal location or select a more appropriate Hotspot.

When should I use a Hotspot instead of a personal location?

Hotspots are a useful way to aggregate results for popular birding locations. However, you should not ALWAYS use a Hotspot for your checklist. Only use an eBird Hotspot when it accurately re presents your entire checklist.

Use a personal location in any situation where no existing Hotspot precisely describes your lo cation or route. If you think that personal location should be a Hotspot in the future, suggest it to eBird’s Hotspot Reviewers!

Precision is preferred. In areas with few Hotspots, personal locations often provide a more ac

Hotspots in Zapata Swamp and Cienfuegos

curate depiction of your trip, especially when you give your personal locations descriptive na mes (e.g., “Suttle Rd. from first driveway to hydrant”). The more precise you make your birding location, the easier it is for scientists to associate your observations with habitat information.

How do I merge a personal location with an existing Hotspot?

If you make a personal location for your checklist(s) in the field, then later realize an existing Hotspot would have been equally appropriate for those lists, you can merge your personal loca tion with that Hotspot. This will move all checklists from that personal location to the Hotspot instead.

How do I suggest a new Hotspot?

If you know of a birding location that meets the criteria for a good Hotspot described above, here is how to nominate it for Hotspot status:

1. Verify a Hotspot does not exist for that location using our Explore Hotspots tool. If it does already exist, you can merge any existing personal location(s) with that hotspot.

2. Next, if you have not already done so, submit an eBird checklist from the area you think should be a Hotspot to ensure it exists as a personal location in your eBird account. It is helpful if you name this personal location using our Hotspot naming conventions before submitting the checklist. (e.g., remove lat/long coordinates and modify the auto-generated name as needed to reflect the entire Hotspot area)

3. Go to My eBird and select “My Locations”.

4. Use the Search bar to locate the personal location you want to suggest as a Hotspot. If the location does not appear as you type: go back to a checklist you previously submitted from that location and copy/paste the location name from that checklist into the search bar.

5. When the location you want to suggest as a Hotspot is found, tap or click its name.

6. On the “Manage location” page, click the “Suggest as Hotspot” link below the location coordinates. Click “Yes” to confirm your submission.

The “Edit location” page, with a link to suggest any personal location as a Hotspot, can be found in the “My Locations” page of My eBird.

IMPORTANT: You will only be able to nominate your own personal locations as Hotspots. Sha red locations can only be suggested as Hotspots by checklist location “owner”. The shared loca tion owner is listed when you click the location name in My Locations.

Hotspots in Havana, Artemisa, Mayabeque and Pinar del Río

The importance of using the regional portal of from Cuba

By VM

With the colaboration of Dr. Lisa Sorenson, Executive Director of Birds Caribbean

In previous issues of the magazine we have reflected the importance of Cuban birdwatchers using the Citizen Science platform eBird.org more and better. On this occasion we will see why it is useful to share our sightings in the Caribbean portal of this platform.

The main advantage is that this is a portal set up specifically for the Caribbean and therefore has protocols for doing counts that are specific for the Caribbean, such as the Caribbean Waterbird Census and the Caribbean Martin Survey. Any data entered on this portal using a desktop or lap top computer or eBird Mobile on a cell phone all goes to the same place as the main portal. But we would like Cuban eBird users to use this portal to take advantage of these Caribbean-specific protocols.

For example, the Caribbean Waterbird Census (CWC) has been running for 11 years now. Birds Caribbean now has excellent long-term data on waterbirds from many islands that specialists are analyzing for trends in numbers, and also identifying which wetlands are important for key species, which have highest diversity and numbers, etc. so that Birds Caribbean can target them for conservation efforts.

For example, as a result of CWC monitoring, Cargill Salt Ponds in Bonaire was designated a WHSRN Site of Regional Importance a couple of years ago. There are many more wetlands that likely qualify for special designation, including in Cuba (e.g., Zapata Swamp, Tunas de Zaza, Los Palacios, etc.), but we need the data! If someone in Cuba enters a count at a wetland and it is not en tered as a CWC count, it does not get included in Birds Caribbean analyses!

If you are using eBird Mobile, you should go to your settings and choose eBird Caribbean as your portal. By doing this, special Caribbean protocols, such as the CWC, will appear to enter your counting data. If you don’t use the app and go straight to the portal on the web, then when you’re already in ebird.org/home you must change the word home to caribbean and you will be in the regional portal. Just like that!

Playa del Chivo, in Havana, is a great spot to watch shorebirds

of birds in the Cuban archipelago

By: Dr. Hiram J. González Alonso y Maikel Cañizares Morera MSc Sociedad Cubana de Zoología e Instituto de Ecología y Sistemática

The migration of birds is a biological phenomenon through which the mo vement of all or part of the population occurs in search of favorable conditions for their development and sur vival. It is one of the most impressi ve displays in nature. Year after year there is the movement of millions of individuals of different species from their breeding areas to those where they spend the winter and vice versa.

There are two important periods in bird migration which are fall migration which is when birds move from breeding te rritories to warmer regions, such as the tropics. It takes place between August and November of each year and in the case of Cuba they come from North America. The other period is the spring migration that takes place between March and April when the birds move from the territories where they winter to the regions where they reproduce. The winter residence is the stage of permanence in the wintering territories, in which no large movements occur. It takes place between the end of November and February of the following year.

Bird populations, residents and migratory, make up important groups in all regions of the world for the functions

they perform as biological contro llers, seed disseminators, and pollina tors. They are also part of the ecolo gical balance and the biological cycle, and constitute economic resources of great value to man through food, hunting, agriculture and tourism.

According to the permanence in the Cuban territory there are several types of bird species (González 2002 and González et al. 2020). These are:

Permanent residents: species who se populations remain throughout the year in the breeding localities or in surrounding areas. Bimodal residents: species that have populations that breed in Cuba, but on migration are joined by individuals that breed in North America. Winter residents: species that breed in North America and win ter in Cuba. Regular transients: spe cies that breed in North America and use Cuba on their journey South. Summer residents: species that come to our territory only for reproduction and then migrate south in the winter months. Occasional visitors: species that breed in North America and occasio nally some individuals are observed in Cuba.

In Cuba, 397 species of birds have been recorded (Navarro, 2020). This amount may fluctuate depending on new records. Of these, 156 breed in Cuba, including 27 endemic species and 238 are migratory species. Of all these species, there are 32 threatened species according to the Red Book of Vertebrates of Cuba (González et al. 2012). In the Insular Caribbean 739 species of birds have been recorded (Raffaele et al. 2003), that is to say that in the Cuban archipelago there are 53.7% of those registered for the region, which indicates the importance of our country for the Caribbean avifauna.

In the American continent there are six migratory routes, of which two affect the Cuban archipelago, the Atlantic coast and the Mississippi.

In research conducted over the last 30 years (Wallace et al. 1996; González et al. 1999; González et al. 2006) it has been shown that the most important

regions where many species and indi viduals of neartic-neotropical migratory birds arrive are the Guanahacabibes Peninsula, the mogotes of Pinar del Río, the north coast of Artemisa - Havana, Matanzas, the north keys of Villa Clara,Ciego de Ávila – Camagüey and Gibara, in Holguín (Fig. 1).

Although in some regions such as Artemisa-Habana and Gibara, a large number of species are not recorded in relation to others, a large number of in dividuals per species are recorded. It is necessary to clarify that many migra tory birds arrive on most of our coasts and then disperse throughout the na tional territory in order to seek shelter and food where they remain throu ghout the winter residence period, so they can be found in all habitats of our archipelago.

By the method of capture and ringing of birds it has been shown that migra tory birds return each year not only to

Fig. 1. Main regions of Cuba where migratory birds arrive. The number of each region indicates an estimate of the number of species recorded.

the previous year, but even to the same locality, demonstrating their extraordinary orientation and high fidelity to the wintering sites.

There are several factors that affect the survival of migratory birds such as deforestation, fires, habitat loss, environmental pollution, as well as illegal capture and trade. The latter causes the reduction of the size of bird populations, the ge netic background, the proportion of sexes and ages and therefore the dynamics of these are altered and the spread of diseases that affect man and domestic birds is favored. It is estimated that a large percentage of birds die from capture methods and transportation, not to mention those who die from injecting drugs

to “sing more”.

The most captured migratory species are the Blue Grosbeak, the Painted Bunting, the Rose-breasted Grosbeak and the In digo Bunting. However, in recent years there has been an increase in the captu re of warblers such as the Black-Throa ted Blue Warbler, the Yellow-Throated Warbler, the Yellow Warbler, the Cape May Warbler and the Northern Paru la. As these feed primarily on insects, many die in captivity because they can not be provided with adequate food for their survival (González et al. 2020).

One of the most serious problems is the capture of migratory raptors such as the Peregrine Falcon and the Merlin, which are used for falconry. Their populations have a relatively low abundance and catches can affect them considerably. It should be remembered that all rap tors are of vital importance for the bio logical control of other animal species.

Although nearctic-neotropical migra tory birds do not breed in Cuba, they are also considered part of our avifauna because they live in our country for six to eight months and play an important role in the ecological balance of our ecosystems.

Bibliography consulted:

Garrido, O. H. y A. Kirkconnell. 2000. Field Guide of the birds in Cuba. Cornell Univ. Press, Ithaca, New York. 253 pp. González Alonso, Hiram. 2002. Aves de Cuba. Ed. UPC Print, Finland. 176 pag. González Alonso, Hiram, A. Llanes, B. Sánchez, D. Rodríguez, E. Pérez, P. Blanco, Ramona Oviedo y Alina Pérez. 1999. Estado de las comunidades de aves residentes y migratorias en ecosistemas cubanos en relación con el impacto provocado por los cambios globales. Informe final de proyecto. 1989-1999. 111 pp.

González Alonso, Hiram, A. Llanes, B. Sánchez, D. Rodríguez, E. Pérez y P. Blanco. 2006. Características de la Migración Otoñal de las Aves terrestres en varias regiones de Cuba. The Journal of Caribbean Ornithology, vol. 19 no. 2: 73-90.

González Alonso, H., L. Rodríguez Schettino, A. Rodríguez, C. A. Mancina e I. Ramos García. 2012 (Ed.). Libro Rojo de los Vertebra dos de Cuba. Editorial Academia, La Habana, 304 pp.

González Alonso, Hiram J., Maikel Cañizares Morera, Xochitl Ayón Güemes & Tomás M. Rodríguez-Cabrera. 2020. Aves Silvestres más capturadas ilegalmente en Cuba. Guía de identificación. Editorial AMA. 56 pp. Navarro Pacheco, Nils. 2020. Annotated Checklist of the Birds of Cuba. Number 3. Ediciones Nuevos Mundos. 64 pp.

Raffaele, H., J. Wiley, O. H. Garrido, A. Keith y J. Raffaele. 2003. Birds of the West Indies. Princeton Univ. Press. Princeton, New Jersey. 217 pp. Wallace, G., Hiram González, M. McNicholl, D. Rodríguez, R. Oviedo, A. Llanes, B. Sánchez y E. Wallace. Winter Surveys of Fo rest-Dwelling Neotropical migrant and resident birds in three regions of Cuba. 1996. The Condor 98 :745-768.

JEAN CARLOS VEGA FOTOGRAFIÓ

EL 20/7 Y ES NUEVO

DE LLEGADA PARA CUBA!!

Our friend Jean Carlos Vega was very fortunate to observe this Prothonotary Warbler/Bijirita Pro tonotaria/Protonotaria citrea as early as July 20, which constitutes a new early record for the species in Cuba. The report was made in the back yard of his home in the heart of Havana. This is a transient species in our country and we usually begin to see the first specimens in mid-August.

BIJIRITA

25/7 NUEVO RECORD DE LLEGADA PARA CUBA DE LA BIJIRITA CHICA!!

This Northern Parula/Bijirita Chica/Se tophaga americana arrived super early to Cuba from its breeding grounds. The July 25 observation is the earliest so far for this species of warbler in Cuba. They usually arrive in August and many stay until May. The sighting was from the mangroves of the Tarará River. The observer was Vladi mir Mirabal.

A solitary Sanderling/Zarapico Blanco/ Calidris alba arrived very early at Playa del Chivo this year and was photographed by Vladimir Mirabal. These noisy shorebirds begin to arrive in Cuba in mid-August and many stay until May of the following year, but this one arrived on July 18 and that is the earliest recorded arrival.

(Baracoa sector)

Spotlight on Alexander Humboldt National Park

Text and photos: Roberto Jovel

At the heart of Eastern Cuba’s northern mountain ranges, straddling the provinces of Holguin and Guantanamo, lies Alexander Humboldt National Park, a jewel of Cuban nature.

Considered an important area for birds’ conservation, the park’s 78,000 ha are home to remar kably high flora and fauna endemism levels not only in the Caribbean context, but at the global level. Such biodiversity riches led UNESCO to designate it a World Natural Heritage Site in 2001.

A mythical place... that you can visit!

One can’t mention Humboldt Park without evoking the last sightings of the legendary Ivory-bi lled Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis bairdii), which took place in the late 1980s in this territory at the core of the Cuchillas del Toa Biosphere Reserve. Or without recalling that it shel ters the last enclaves of the Cuban Kite (Chondrohierax wilsonii), a critically endangered Cuban endemic bird.

The following lines and images set out to share with you the pleasures of birding in the Baracoa Sector of Alexander Humboldt National Park.

Let’s start with some endemics

Several trails of different lengths and levels of difficulty wait for those who would like to disco ver the national park. They are home to a range of endemic birds such as the charismatic Cuban Trogon (Priotelus temnurus), the Bee Hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae) and the Cuban Tody (Todus multicolor)...

There’s also the Oriente Warbler (Teretistris fornsi), the Grey-fronted Quail-Dove (Geotrygon caniceps) and the Cuban Pygmy Owl (Glaucidium siju), among a number of others.

As you continue to explore – you can also take a look at the beautiful regional endemic flora ...

As you make your way meeting new you can also take a look at the beautiful regional endemic flora ... These pictures show you a Purdiaea between two orchids: Tetramicra tenera and Ency clia howardii.

A breeding habitat for several Cuban raptor species

Coming back to birds – Humboldt Park’s beautiful Cuban Pine (Pinus cubensis) forests offer ideal breeding conditions for several raptor species. Some of these are submitted to particular kinds of pressures and require effective conservation measures.

The pictures below show you the majestic Gundlach’s Hawk (Accipiter gundlachi), a rare ende mic species that the IUCN and Cuba’s Libro Rojo de los Vertebrados (Cuban Vertebrates’ Red List) consider to be endangered. And also the endemic and even rarer Cuban Sharp-shinned Hawk. It is currently classified as a subspecies (Accipiter striatus fringilloides), but a recent genetic study gives it a full species status (see Catanach et al’s advance article in the American Ornithological Society’s Ornithology magazine website, June 2021).

Other Cuban avifauna specialties living in the park

It would be too long to make the full list of amazing birds that live in Humboldt Park. They in clude other endemics such as the Cuban Solitaire (Myadestes elisabeth), the Cuban Bullfinch (Melopyrrha nigra) and the Eastern subspecies of the Red-legged Thrush (Turdus plumbeus schistaceus). The following images show you the colourful Western Spindalis (Spindalis zena pretrei), the charming Cuban Parrot (Amazona leucocephala leucocephala) and the beautiful Stygian Owl (Asio stygius siguapa).

Further regional fauna endemics to discover!

Visiting Humboldt Park will allow you to meet other fauna species that are endemic not to the country, but to the region, such as the brightly coloured butterfly Cuban Checkerspot (Atlantea perezi), the Saltacocote (Anolis baracoae, a lizard that measures roughly 15 inches) and one of the tiniest frogs in the world: the Monte Iberia frog (Eleutherodactylus iberia).

Alexander Humbodlt National Park’s lovely people and delicious treats

Welcoming folks and culinary delights – don’t miss out visiting local families in their eco far ms nor tasting the delicious traditional sweets – grated coconut and guava cucuruchos, almond brittle, chocolate bonbons... All of them organic and great sources of energy as you go around birding!

A final line to convey my brotherly thanks to park ranger and birding guide extraordinaire Wis denilde “El Indio” Navarro, whose knowledge and excellent skills have enabled me to discover Humboldt Park’s wonderful birds.

“El Indio” Navarro, Park Ranger, Conservacionist and Birdwatching Guide

A visitor shows cucuruchos made locally by the farmers

Family agroecological mini-industry

WHO IS Miramar´s Intruder?

In April 2019, the Facebook group Aves de Cuba reported the presence of a Common Myna / Common Mina / Acridotheres tristis in the surroundings of the National Aqua rium, in the capital area of Miramar. This species is native to Southeast Asia and has been introduced to many parts of the world, including South Florida. The finding, su pported with a couple of photos, was made by Maikel Cañizares and very quickly generated a tremendous stir on social media. From there, other observers visited to the site and obtained new images; and the most worrying thing about the case was that it was not just one, but two: female and male.

After closely following this new species for Cuba, in July of that year friend Alejandro Abella shared in the same Facebook group photos showing the aforementioned couple carrying food to a nest so it was clear that, in fact, they had hatched a pair of chicks. The nest was made in a cavity of the walls of the Hotel Panorama, very close to the area where it was first sighted. Already the issue

became very worrying because of the har mful effects that this invasive bird could have on our native ones. Already a rather unfortunate situation occurs in Florida where this species has displaced those that have always lived there, predating their nests and imposing their new territories.

But who really is this intruder? At the time, the expert and friend Nils Navarro presented the following in the group Aves de Cuba on this particular:

“My friends, given the diversity of criteria in relation to the “comrade” Common Myna, I will take a few lines explaining who this citi zen is and what he does, who is wanted by the immigration authorities for entering our island without a visa or passport.

I proceed to the details. The Common Myna known in Latin by the álias Acridotheres tris tis, is of Asian origin, I will not describe it because everyone has seen his its appea rance on social networks, today it is already

Common Myna/Miná Común/Acridotheres tristis

the trending topic. I will go to what interests us, the aforementioned “comrade” has been spreading considerably throughout the world since 1900 and has become a very common bird in the places where it has been introduced, since it is highly invasive, to the point that it is considered among the 100 most invasive species on Earth.

Currently the main cause of its great expan sion has been the market and trafficking of pets through specimens escaped from captivity or voluntarily released into the wild. This has caused that today is widely distributed throughout the world: Japan, Botswana, South Africa, Madagascar, sou thern United States (Florida), Australia, New Zealand, as well as other tropical islands as Seychelles, Fiji and Hawaii and now we are facilitating to hold on to Cuuubaaa.

Deliberate introductions have purported to be justified as insect pest control, however, their real benefits have not been proven or validated. They have been proven to cause great damage to crops, mainly fruit and ce reals. In addition, another great diversity of impacts has already been associated with this species. This “colleague” feeds on con tent from other birds ‘ nests and also causes serious impacts on waterfowl colonies. It is very aggressive in its nesting territo ries and usually destroys the nests of other birds in the vicinity, so it competes strongly for nesting sites with native birds. It has demonstrated its role in the processes of ex tinction of several species of birds such as: Foudia madagascariensis, Psittacula eques and Falco punctatus all endemic to islands in which the Myna has introduced parasi tes and diseases, ahhh and VERYYY impor tante!!! This bird is host to blood parasites such as Haemoproteus and Plasmodium. This fellow has also been involved in the in troduction and expansion of invasive plants.

It is omnivorous (eats everything), but in sects are predominant in its diet, constitu ting 82%, among the vertebrates it feeds on: frogs, fish, gekos and other small li zards, eggs and chicks of other birds and mice. Sometimes they can be scavengers.

The nesting period varies from territory to territory, but in Asia it is usually from March to August. They are monogamous, so it is estimated that they only have one partner for

life, that we have to congratulate the boy for!!! Sheers!! They nest isolated and both sexes build and protect the nest, which are taken to prepare up to two weeks, using dry branches, grass, leaves, and sometimes in clude animal hair, paper, plastic, and other dissimilar materials all this within a cavi ty that can be located up to 40 meters in height, on tree trunks, rocks, holes made by other animals, palm trees and all kinds of human structures and even in old cars. Insi de these nests they deposit between 4 and 5 pale blue, light blue or bluish green eggs. Both sexes incubate the eggs, especially the females do it during the night, for a period of 13 to 18 days and then the chicks are fed by their parents between the following 22 to 27 days. The success of the nest can vary be tween 54 and 90%, depending on the place, in islands like Hawaii the reproductive suc cess has been estimated at less than 50% of the hatched and only 22% of the chicks are successful, hopefully in this nest of the Panorama behaves the same!!! Or worse..!

It is estimated that this “citi zen” has a “home range” of approximately 0 to 1 km 2, but movements of up to 4 km have been recorded from its main feeding places. A ringed individual in South Africa moved 381 km in the period of one year.

Ahh!! another curious fact, birds have been recaptured after 7 years of having been rin ged.

Well colleagues, I know that the text is long, but I think it can be useful if a management is required and if you have in your power how to do it because here you have some basis, please share it in case this might be helpful to any other colleague. Best Regards.”

As you can see, it was very clear that some thing had to be done and soon, before the chicks grew any more. Then a lot of consul -

tation began by members of that Facebook group with several insti tutions such as the Antonio Núñez Jiménez Foundation of Nature and Man, the Cuban Society of Zoolo gy and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, among others.

Some time later, with all the neces sary permits and authorizations, a control intervention was carried out with the aim of eradicating these four individuals. It wasn’t a one-day thing and the result was that only one was left alive who managed to escape wounded ... In fact, it was a good example of collaboration between government entities, civil society and citizens in achieving a common goal that would benefit our birds. ¡Bravo!!

But the end of this story has not yet come. On July 2 of this year, at the Cuba Birders Club on Face book, our friend Jorge Muñoz Orquin shared three photos in which a Myna was clearly seen perched on a streetlight in the parking lot of the Meliá Haba na Hotel, right in the area where the events of 2019 occurred. Once again, there was a stir in the social media. Birdwatchers rushed to the site to further document the presence of the intruder and try to check whether he was alone or not. At the time of writing this note, it has not been possible to specify with certainty whether there is more than one indi vidual, but it is presumed that he is a male and that he is alone. There is a good chance that he is the survivor of the control operation mentioned above but that since he has no partner he will not repro duce. At least until another female specimen arrives from Florida, on a cruise ship or by another way.

Are we going to wait quietly for this to happen or do we get down to work and eradicate it before it’s too late?

Photo by Alejandro Abella, July 2019

Photo by Jorge Muñoz Orquin, July 2020

winners of the drawing contest “my favorite bird is...”

FIRST PLACE

Lukas Cervantes, 9, Moa, Holguín

THIRD PLACE

Medisnel Roche Pérez, 14, Ciénaga de Zapata, Matanzas

honorable mentions

Abraham Cervantes, 12, Moa, Holguín

Camila Alvarez Meléndez, 10, Casa Blanca, La Habana

Cristian Araño Carballosa, 8, Casa Blanca, La Habana

Cristofher Araño Carballosa, 9, Casa Blanca, La Habana

Naila Dolores Salvador Flerima, 10, Casa Blanca. La Habana

Pedro Luis Correoso Marquez, 9, Casa Blanca, La Habana

Yeliannis Suarez Viera, 8, Casa Blanca, La Habana

Eva Mirabal Lorenzo, 9, Playa, La HabanaFranlys Álvarez Placeres, 13, Ciénaga de Zapata, Matanzas

Vanesa M. Montes de Oca, 8, Ciénaga de Zapata, Matanzas

Enzo Reyes Cárdenas, 9, Ciénaga de Zapata, Matanzas

SECOND PLACE

Legna Perez Roashford, 11, Casa Blanca, La Habana