Cuban ivory-billed woodpecker
A male Cuban ivory-billed woodpecker photographed by John Dennis
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Piciformes
Family:	Picidae
Genus:	Campephilus
Species:	C. principalis
Subspecies:	C. p. bairdii
Trinomial name
Campephilus principalis bairdii (Cassin, 1863)

The Cuban ivory-billed woodpecker (Spanish: carpintero real)^[1] (Campephilus principalis bairdii) is a subspecies of the ivory-billed woodpecker native to Cuba. Originally classified as a separate species, recent research has indicated that C. p. bairdii may, in fact, be sufficiently distinct from the nominate subspecies to once again be regarded as a species in its own right.

There have been no confirmed sightings of the bird since 1987; it is generally believed to be extinct, although the survival of some individuals is considered a remote possibility.

Taxonomy and appearance

C. p. bairdii was originally designated as a separate species (C. bairdii) by John Cassin, based on suggestions by Spencer Fullerton Baird.^[2] Cassin described it as:

Much resembling C. principalis, but smaller and with the black anterior feathers of the crest longer than those succeeding, which are scarlet. White longitudinal line on the neck reaching quite to the base of the bill. ... It appears to be one of the singular insular species which have become well known to naturalists.^[2]

The Cuban form was later redesignated as a subspecies of the American ivory-billed woodpecker, C. principalis. A more recent study by Fleischer, Kirchman et al. has, however, suggested that the Cuban and American forms are sufficiently genetically distinct to be regarded as separate species, which along with the imperial woodpecker (C. imperialis) form a distinct North American clade within Campephilus that appeared in the mid-Pleistocene.^[3] The methods adopted by the study suggest that the split between C. principalis and the lineage represented by C. p. bairdii and C. imperialis occurred first.^[3] The American Ornithologists' Union Committee on Classification and Nomenclature, while describing the data as "intriguing", has indicated that it is not yet ready to list the American and Cuban forms as two separate species.^[4]

The first detailed description of the Cuban form's behavior and habitat was not published until 1893, when Juan Gundlach included it in Volume 1 of his Ornitología Cubana. In Cuba it was usually known by the name of carpintero real ("royal woodpecker"), although this name was also used for other birds.

Habitat

As with C. p. principalis, C. p. bairdii was thought to inhabit old-growth forests with a plentiful supply of dead or dying trees; these were a source of the cerambycid and other beetle larvae that formed the bulk of its diet. Most of Cuba's lowland deciduous forests had been cleared by the early 20th century, and the species became restricted to the montane pine forests dominated by Pinus cubensis and Pinus tropicalis in the northeastern part of the island. Its original range was given as through the Organ Mountains, in the lowland forests of the Ensenada de Cochinos and along the Hanabana River.^[5]

Behavior

Relatively few accounts of the bird's behavior in the wild exist. The ornithologist John Dennis located a few birds in 1948 and noted some of their feeding and other habits, commenting that "they spent so much time [preening and scratching] that I considered it unusual". He observed that they were not especially shy or elusive once they had become used to his presence, eventually "seeming positively lethargic", although a male bird intervened quickly to drive a kestrel away from the nesting site.^[6]

The breeding season of C. p. bairdii occurred from March–June.^[7] It has been surmised that the woodpecker's foraging specialization may have led to its forming small groups, much like Campephilus imperialis which was occasionally reported in groups of eight or more individuals; this behavior would enable the birds to best exploit a patchily-occurring food source.^[8]

Status

Although once common on the island, C. p. bairdii was already very rare by the late 1940s, when Dennis located a small population in a remnant of forest in the Cuchillas de Moa range which had already been cut-over for timber some years previously.^[6][9] George Lamb found six territories still there in 1956, and recommended that a conservation plan be implemented, but the 1959 Cuban Revolution was to intervene.

The last universally accepted sighting of a Cuban ivory-billed woodpecker occurred in 1987, when a single female specimen was identified in the mountains of eastern Cuba by Giraldo Alayón and Aimé Pasada, following a handful of observations of both male and female birds by a team of ornithologists, including Lester L. Short and his wife Jennifer F. M. Horne, in the area of Ojito de Agua, a hilly pine forest.^[10] Although the area was immediately designated as protected by the Cuban government, searches in 1991 and 1993 failed to find any further traces of the bird, and it became clear that the birds seen in 1986–87 had already been in "dire" circumstances.^[10] Thus the Cuban ivory-bill was inferred to have gone extinct around 1990.^[11] The area given protection in the 1980s is now part of Alejandro de Humboldt National Park.

The IUCN Red List notes that calls were reportedly heard in 1998 in the highest reaches of the Sierra Maestra, but that a subsequent search failed to find any trace of the species or of good potential habitat: it is considered a (remote) possibility that some individuals may survive, as around 80% of suitable habitat in Cuba has yet to be searched.^[7][12]

References