Ecobreves – CUBA: Cuban Flicker Changes Habits

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HAVANA, Dec 8 2003 (IPS) - The bird known as Fernandina’s or Cuban Flicker (Colaptes fernandinae) no longer pecks holes in tree trunks to make its nests, which is accentuating the risk that the species will go extinct, say researchers. Experts in Villa Clara, 300 kms from Havana, warned that the change of habits is leading to a reduction in the number of flickers, which live in forested areas in the western and central parts of Cuba. But they have not yet determined why the flicker changed its nesting habits.

The 34-cm-long bird normally uses its beak to make nesting holes in the trunks of sick or dead trees. The hollows are then used year after year by other birds.

Although there is no lack of sick or dead trees, the flicker now prefers to use hollows created by other species, unusual behavior that is worrying researchers at the National Company of Protection of Flora and Fauna.