L. Forró szerk.: Miscellanea Zoologica Hungarica 9. 1994 (Budapest, 1994)
Bankovics, A.; Melián Hernández, L. O.: Bird migration data from a mangrove swamp near Santiago de Cuba
MISCELLANEA ZOOLOGICA HUNGARICA Tomus 9. 1994 p. 121-134 Bird migration data from a mangrove swamp near Santiago de Cuba by A. Bankovics and Luis O. Melián Hernandez (Received July 20, 1994) Abstract: The avifauna of a mangrove swamp was studied by a 4-day ringing camp and field observations along the Caribbean coast in November 1992. 66 bird species were recorded in the studied area, mostly in the two characteristic habitat, the mangrove forest and the salty lagoon. The most numerous Passerines in the mangrove were Seiurus noveboracensis and Dendroica petechia. In the salty lagoon the two dominant species were Calidris pusilla and Himantopus mexicanus. Some rare birds of the area were also recorded, like Anas americana, Limnodromus griseus and Micropalama himantopus. Key words: mangrove swamp, salty lagoon, bird ringing, migration, biometrical data Introduction Close to the second largest Cuban city Santiago de Cuba a new mangrove forest has developed naturally in the last decades. The birds of the area have been studied by Melián Hernandez since 1990, but there are no detailed publications about this area (Melián Hernandez et al. 1993). Our present paper is rather a preliminary report about the avifauna living in this mangrove swamp based on observation and banding data obtained by a few days study camp in November 1992. Material and methods The study area The studied mangrove swamp area, San Miguel de Parada, is situated only a few kms SW of Santiago de Cuba. It is a lagoon-system along the west coast of the long gulf of the Caribbean sea. Based on principal ecological characters we divided the studied area into two main parts. One of them is covered by real mangrove forest, while the other one is a wide, flat salty lagoon with sandy soil. It is also bordered partly by mangroves. All the mangrove trees of the studied area belong to the same species, Avicennia nitida. The central parts of the mangrove forests are well developed and have closed canopies. The trees are 12-18 m high. That part of forest has nearly open interior, without under-growths. Along the edge zone where the tide effect is less, the same species of mangrove trees form a semi-open swampy vegetation, with scattered mangrove bushes. The central part of the second area is about 1 km 2 open, salty lagoon covered by shallow water during the high tide. It is separated from the sea-gulf by a few hundred meter wide mangrove forest.
