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

The area is bordered in the south-west by the small river, Rio Parada and in the north by dry broken ground covered with rural vegetation. The weather was nearly the same all the four days. The temperature was between 30 C maximum and 24 C minimum. There was very little wind or it was mostly calm. There was only a small rain on 12 Nov., otherwise it was sunny and dry, although north of the studied area above the mountains Sierra Maiestra every day was cloudy and rainy. Methods With the object of our main programme mistncts were used to catch shorebirds and waterfowls. Besides that songbird countings were performed in some mangrove areas, and a total counting in the open salty lagoon on 14 November (Table 4). Results During the 4-day period, altogether, 66 bird species belonging to 25 families were recorded. Among them there are 20 families with 49 species (74 %) belonging to the groups of nonPasserines, and 5 families with 28 species (26 %) belonging to the Passerines birds. The wetland San Miguel de Parada is very important as a wintering habitat for many North-American migrants and also important as a resting site on their migration routes. The two dominant non-Passerine orders were the Charadriiformes with 22 species, and the Ciconiiformes with 10 species. From the point of view of avifaunistics, there were some important records for this area, these are as follows: Anas americana, Accipiter striatus, Charadrius wilsonia, Cataptrophorus semipalmatus, Calidris niauri, Limnodromus griseus, Micropalama himantopus, Gelochelidon nilotica, Rynchops nigra, Colaptes auratus. After our fteldwork in San Miguel de Parada we can support the idea that this wetland has an international importance and should be listed as a Ramsar-site. Detailed list of species: Pelecanidae Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) 1 juv. specimen was recorded in the nearby gulf on 14 Nov. Ardeidae Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) Only two specimens were observed. One in the mangrove forest on 13 Nov., and the other one in the nearby gulf on 15 Nov. Green Heron (Butorides virescens) 1 specimen around the hotel of university in the middle of the city Santiago de Cuba on 12 Nov. One specimen along the small river Rio Parada on 14 Nov.