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- Title
Overwinter status of Bicknell's Thrush (Catharus bicknelli) in eastern Cuba.
- Authors
Rimmer, Christopher C.; Viña Davila, Nicasio; Lloyd, John D.; Aubry, Yves; Placencia León, Carmen; Vega, Yasit Segovia; Rodríguez Santana, Freddy; Fuentes, Jose Ramon; Sosa, Alejandro Llanes
- Abstract
To clarify the distribution, relative abundance, and habitat associations of overwintering Bicknell's Thrush (Catharus bicknelli) in eastern Cuba, we conducted extensive point count and presence-absence surveys during six winters between 1998-2005 and the four winters of 2017-2020, in a variety of forested habitats at varied elevations. During the earlier period, we detected a total of 84 Bicknell's Thrushes at 54 of 330 discrete sampling points, while in 2017-2020 we detected 33 individual thrushes at 21 of 497 points. We obtained evidence of clustering, with 2-6 individuals registered simultaneously at 24 (32%) of the 75 points with detections in both sampling periods. All thrushes detected in 1998-2005 and 29 (87%) of those detected in 2017-2020 occupied cloud forest habitats at elevations between approximately 1,250 and 1,850 m above sea level (asl) in Sierra Maestra, from Parque Nacional (PN) Pico Turquino in the west to PN Bayamesa in the east. Extensive surveys in lower-elevation forests of Sierra Maestra and other geographic regions of eastern Cuba documented four individual thrushes in non-cloud forest habitat during February of 2019. These were found at adjacent points at an elevation of 650 m asl on the south slope of PN Alejandro de Humboldt; follow-up surveys one year later detected no thrushes in the area. Our survey results in PN Pico Turquino yielded markedly lower numbers of individuals than those detected during early and mid-winter periods from 1998 to 2005. Our results suggest that Bicknell's Thrush is a rare overwintering species in Cuba, restricted almost entirely to high-elevation cloud forests. These forests are generally well-protected from direct anthropogenic disturbance or degradation. Our findings further suggest that Cuba harbors an overwintering population of Bicknell's Thrush second only to Hispaniola's in abundance, and that Cuba is of strategic importance as a refugium for conservation of this globally vulnerable passerine on its restricted wintering range.
- Subjects
CUBA; CLOUD forests; FOREST surveys; THRUSHES; ENDANGERED species; SEA level; WINTER
- Publication
Journal of Caribbean Ornithology, 2024, Vol 37, p1
- ISSN
1544-4953
- Publication type
Academic Journal
- DOI
10.55431/jco.2024.37.1-11