The last Puerto Rican endemic species we wrote about was the rather lovely but fierce-looking Puerto Rican Screech-owl Megascops nudipes, and in that account we said that, “Birders on Puerto Rico have a chance of seeing two endemic night birds…” And we were correct, because if you’re a very fortunate birder indeed you might get to see one of the world’s rarest species the Critically Endangered Puerto Rican Nightjar Caprimulgus noctitherus (or Guabairo de Puerto Rico as it’s called in Spanish)*.

Puerto Rican Nightjar, photo right copyright Kevin Loughlin, Wildside Nature Tours

The Puerto Rican Nightjar was originally discovered in late October 1888 near Bayamon but was thought by its finder to be a migrant Whip-poor-will C. vociferus, a reasonably common (but now widely declining) North and Central American nightjar. Alexander Wetmore looked at the specimen and re-named it C. noctitherus in 1919, but it wasn’t until 1961 when two biologists found a live bird in Guanica Forest that taxonomic consensus on its status as a full species distinct from the Whip-poor-will was reached.

One of 192 Critically Endangered bird species (IUCN 2009) the current population of the Puerto Rican Nightjar was estimated in 2004 to be just between 1,400 - 2,000 pairs and their future is by no means secure. Most current accounts suggest that the Puerto Rican Nightjar once inhabited coastal lowlands all around western Puerto Rico (which is likely to be correct judging by the impacts of deforestation on populations of better-known species, but obviously there is no data to back this up: the habitat the bird survives in now - mainly undisturbed, closed canopy dry forest with plentiful insects - was once much more widespread across the island). Habitat loss and introduced predators have now restricted it to a very small fraction of its former breeding range - mainly in three populations spread around the south-west: Susúa-Maricao, Guayanilla-Peñuelas and Guánica-Bermeja according to surveys. Recent unpublished data suggests that it is also present through the south-east between Ponce and Guayama (Sociedad Ornitológica Puertorriqueña [SOPI], the Puerto Rican BirdLife partner).

IBAs where the Puerto Rican Nightjar has been recorded (copyright BirdLife International)

The most disturbing recent development threat has come from a proposed wind farm development of twenty-five 450 foot high turbines spread out over 725 acres in Guayanilla municipality [municipality shown in red, right] by Windmar RE which would involve destruction of part of the Guanica Forest and the loss of half of the site’s 46 breeding pairs of nightjar - or 5% of the global population (Unesco designated the Bosque Estatal de Guanica as a United Nations Biosphere Reserve in 1981 to highlight its importance and approximately half of Puerto Rico’s bird species and half of its endemics occur here; it’s also included in the Karso del Sur IBA)! The US Dept of Energy has described the proposed site as not especially suitable for electricity generation, and from what I can discover the proposals were given the go ahead at one point but thankfully still face massive lawsuits from environmentalists…perhaps activists on Puerto Rico can give me an update?

Disturbances of many sorts could still significantly threaten nightjars in their remaining forest refuges including tree cutting, road and utility line construction and maintenance, extensive recreational use of the forests, wild fires, and grazing by domestic stock. About half of the current nightjar habitat is in protected public forests, but the remainder, including lands adjacent to the public forests, is privately held and susceptible to conversion to other uses (which is the situation at the site of the proposed wind farm).

Puerto Rican Nightjar/Guabairo de Puerto Rico Caprimulgus noctitherus
Photo copyright Armando Feliciano, used with permission.

Another threat alluded to above comes from the introduced Indian Mongoose Herpestes jarvanicus, which may have played an important role in eliminating nightjars from the moist forests of the north coast after its introduction to Puerto Rico in 1877 and could continue to do so now. Native to areas from Iran, through India to Burma and the Malay Peninsula, this indiscriminate and highly efficient hunter has been widely introduced to islands such as Puerto Rico, Mauritius, Fiji, the West Indies and Hawaii to control introduced rats, particularly in (introduced) sugar cane fields (notice a theme in that last sentence?).

Unfortunately, native mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates proved to be easier prey and the mongoose has been responsible for wiping out the Barred-wing rail Nesoclopeus poecilopterus on Fiji, helping introduced Rats destroy the Jamaica Petrel Pterodroma caribbea (Critically Endangered possibly Extinct), and is still a major threat to the Endangered Pink Pigeon on Mauritius (one of my favourite birds so “This time it’s personal”). On top of a voracious appetite for birds little Rikki Tikki Tavi is also a vector for rabies: smart move introducing it round the world all things considered…

Adult male Puerto Rican Nightjar/Guabairo de Puerto Rico Caprimulgus noctitherus brooding a 3-day-old chick at Guánica Forest. Photo copyright Dr Francesco Villela (public domain usage permitted).

So what’s being done to conserve this beautiful and terribly threatened bird?

In the US the Puerto Rican Nightjar was federally listed as Endangered in 1973. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved a Puerto Rican Whip-poor-will (as it was then known) Recovery Plan in 1984. The plan recommended research to gain knowledge of the population, range and natural history of the imperiled species, the cause of its decline, and potential threats to its survival. It also called for protection of existing populations on both public and private lands, and education of the public against adverse habitat modification (clearly any changes that make the dry forests in the southwest more hospitable to mongooses or more accessible to dogs, cats, and rats could have terrible consequences for the few remaining nightjars).

The Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico (a hugely important private, non-profit organization whose mission “is to protect and enhance the Island’s natural resources”) has acquired lands in the Guayanilla-Peñuelas region, which includes mature dry forest where nightjars are abundant. The latter constitutes the only protected nightjar habitat in this portion of their range. The population is surveyed regularly and spatial analysis is being used to identify areas of potentially suitable habitat for protection and examine changes in habitat cover over time.

Most importantly (in this blog’s opinion anyway) as part of BirdLife International’s Preventing Extinctions Programme [which 10,000 Birds joined in January of this year] the Sociedad Ornitológica Puertorriqueña, Inc (SOPI) was “designated as Species Guardian and are implementing the following actions: revising a Species Action Plan in collaboration with the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS); planning a research project to be carried out Dr Francisco Vilella and the Mississippi State University (scheduled to take place from March to May 2009), which will include surveys to determine the current range, suitable habitat and conservation recommendations; and raising community awareness through school presentations and the dissemination of educational materials. The priority conservation actions identified by the Species Action Plan will be implemented through a newly-established Puerto Rican Nightjar Conservation Network and facilitated by the Species Guardian.”

Hopefully we will be able to report on the findings of this critically-important research when it is published…and hopefully this lovely species will continue to flutter through the darkness of Puerto Rico’s nights for many, many years to come…

* Incidentally, birders visiting Puerto Rico should bear in mind that not every ‘nightjar’ on the island is a Puerto Rican: Chuck-will’s-widow C. carolinensis is a northern migrant in the winter (it’s larger, more reddish and has less white in tail) and the Antillean Nighthawk Chordeiles gundlachii, which has a distinctive white patch in the wing and is a species of open ground, is a summer visitor.

Update November 2009:

A new study of the Critically Endangered Puerto Rican Nightjar suggests that the species’ geographic range is greater than previously estimated. This is the major finding of ‘Geographic distribution of the Puerto Rican Nightjar: A patch occupancy approach’, a joint effort between the Sociedad Ornitológica Puertorriqueña, Inc. (SOPI, the BirdLife Partner and Species Guardian for Puerto Rican Nightjar), Mississippi State University, USGS Cooperative Research Units, BirdLife International, and The British Birdwatching Fair.

• For the full story please go to BirdLife International: New study shines light on nightjar

Useful references:
BirdLife International Datazone: Puerto Rican Nightjar
Audubon Watchlist

Produced in association with BirdLife International and edited by Erik Hirschfeld, the excellent “Rare Birds Yearbook” (RBYB) series looks in detail at each of the Critically Endangered bird species on the planet - including the Puerto Rican Nightjar.

We gave the Rare Birds Yearbook 2009 a very enthusiastic review, describing it as “beautifully presented, lavishly illustrated, comprehensive, and superbly written” amongst other things. No other publication available is so up-to-date, is so crammed with data, and has so many outstanding photographs of the world’s Critically Endangered species, and it is highly recommended.

STOP PRESS: Erik is generously offering a 25% Discount from the cover price to all 10,000 Birds readers! Simply visit the Rare Birds Yearbook website at RBYB - Order, place your order, enter the discount code facrusp, and the total will be automatically adjusted before you go to the checkout.

• Like to see what else we’ve posted for ‘Puerto Rico Month’? Just click http://10000birds.com/tag/puerto-rico-month

 

• If you live in Puerto Rico or have visited PR and would like to contribute photos or a guest post (return traffic to your blog/website should be good, folks) then please mail charlie10000birds AT gmail DOT com

How would you and a partner/friend like to win a 5 day ‘Endemic Dash’ around Puerto Rico with Kevin Loughlin’s WildSide Nature Tours?

You would? Read on…

Kevin (whose photographs of Puerto Rican Woodpecker and Green-throated Carib grace this post) has been organising trips to the Caribbean for many years and is generously offering two places on an Endemic Dash, one of his popular short trips around Puerto Rico on which participants will be taken to see as many of the island’s endemics as possible.

The Tour starts in San Juan - so you’ll need to get there (flights are frequent and cheap from many major US cities) - but all guiding fees, accommodations, ground transportation, and meals from dinner on day of arrival through breakfast on day of departure are included!

That would normally cost two people around 2500USD - enter and win and it’ll cost you just your passport fees, airport taxes, alcoholic beverages, laundry, phone calls or anything else of a purely personal nature! Which - if you go easy on the celebratory beers, wear the same socks for a few days, and keep short the gloating phone calls to your jealous mates back home - really won’t amount to very much at all…

We’ll be posting more info about this fantastic competition during Puerto Rico Month - yes, okay, not posting the questions now is our way of making sure you come back to visit us, but why would you want to miss some truly exceptional photographs of Puerto Rico’s endemics and some of the most up-to-date info on Puerto Rico’s biodiversity on the net anyway?