Ernesto Reyes Mouriño

This project will allow to carry out an environmental education program in mountains communities to improve the awareness in relation to the habitat conservation and to try to obtain field references and general data about the natural history of the Cuban Kite (Critically Endangered Bird of Cuba). School and community workshops will allow to us to teach how to avoid the habitat destruction caused by logging and agricultural conversion and we hope to teach farmers that mistakenly believe that it preys on poultry. Others threatened birds will be benefit with the project like the Cuban Parakeet and the Giant Kingbird.

In 2001, I collected several intriguing samples of the endemic land snail, Polymita sulphurosa, in Ságua de Tánamo, eastern Cuba. The samples were send to Dr. James W. Wiley, who tentatively confirmed that the snails had been depredated by the Cuban Kite (Chondrohierax uncinatus wilsonii). In 2002, I led three expeditions to San Juan de Castro River and the surrounding area, Ságua de Tánamo, La Melba, and Quiviján in Holguín Province, but we collected only food remains (opened Polymita shells) of the kite, and new information about additional localities was obtained from local people whom we interviewed because of their competent field knowledge. In June 2004, I observed the kite and took a diagnostic photograph of the bird, presumed as female. The photograph confirmed that the bird still alive, at least in very small numbers in its limited distribution. I am now attempting to further document the kite’s survival, as well as add to our limited knowledge of its most basic biology. The main problem in the localities is the land uses due to coconut harvesting, sweet potatoes and others roots like foods. Through this project we hope to teach people to know about biodiversity richness in their own properties and how to help with the conservation of some threatened birds species. The project will help to add the localities like a part of the Humboldt National Park with the help of governmental institutions like the Protected Areas National System (SNAP).

We hope to teach people to know the local hawks and how to prevent the attack to the poultry and to teach people how they can use the land without big habitat alterations and how they can live with theses birds joins together. The area is located inside of the IBAS program in Cuba so, if this bird appears in the area could be used like flag specie for conservation concerns. I expect to get first hand information to know where to found good evidences of the presence of this birds or at least general information about where they were looked in the past. To identified where could be exist the birds, we will apply surveys with local people to identified what do they know about raptors species and identified the evidences of the Cuban Kite presence. At least 3 workshops will be developed to teach local people and forest guards about how they can to identify the raptors species, with emphasis in this bird. We will teach educational talks in local schools and during the project we will be exploring and training people to identified where to look for the birds and how they can act to preserve the specie.