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Cuban Gnatcatcher | Polioptila lembeyei
Cubaanse muggenvanger | Sinsontillo
The Cuban Gnatcatcher is a small, slim, long-tailed bird of the dry coastal scrub of Cuba. It is confined to a narrow belt along the coast and on the cays, which makes it much more local than most Cuban endemics. In Cuba it is called sinsontillo.
Voice
The song is a long, rambling series of twitters, whistles and short trills, faster and more varied than that of Blue-grey Gnatcatcher. The call is a soft, nasal chee.
Recording: Nils Navarro — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
10–11 cm, almost half of it tail. Upperparts blue-grey, underparts whitish with a grey wash on the breast and flanks. A thin white eye-ring and, as the clearest feature, a black crescent curving from behind the eye around the ear coverts. The long tail is black with white outer feathers and is often cocked and moved from side to side. Females are slightly duller, with a thinner crescent. Juveniles are olive-grey, with buff flanks and a creamy belly.
Confusion species
Blue-grey Gnatcatcher Polioptila caerulea, a common winter visitor in Cuba, lacks the black crescent behind the eye; breeding-plumaged males instead have a black line above the eye, but these are rarely seen in Cuba. Blue-grey Gnatcatcher is also whiter below and less tied to coastal scrub.
Habitat
Dry, dense thorn and cactus scrub and low coastal woodland close to the sea, almost always below 100 m. It forages actively in the bushes for small insects and spiders, flicking its tail, and holds territories in pairs or small family groups. The nest is a small, compact cup of plant fibres and spider silk in a bush.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
Only in Cuba, along much of the north coast and the offshore cays, such as Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo, and along the dry south-east coast in Guantánamo and Santiago de Cuba provinces; there are also isolated populations on the south coast. It is absent from the interior. The species does not occur outside Cuba.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Best found in the coastal scrub of Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo and in the cactus vegetation along the coast east of Guantánamo. The rambling song and tail-flicking give the bird away; in a good view the black crescent is decisive.
Conservation status
Not threatened, but the range is small and fragmented. Coastal scrub is under pressure from grazing, clearance and the construction of hotels and roads, including on the northern cays.
Scientific name
Polioptila lembeyei | (Gundlach, 1858)
Gundlach described the species in 1858 as Culicivora lembeyei; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Polioptila was introduced in 1855 by Sclater. Polioptila is Greek, from polios 'grey' and ptilon 'feather': 'grey-feathered'. lembeyei honours the Spanish naturalist Juan Lembeye (1816–1889), author of Aves de la Isla de Cuba (1850). The specimen the first description was based on came from eastern Cuba.