The wings of the world’s smallest birds are a nearly invisible blur as they flit around tourists visiting a private Cuban garden that has become a refuge for declining species.
The bee hummingbird, which measures just five to six centimeters (two inches) long, is only found in Cuba. Its losses have been huge, with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) saying it has disappeared from many areas due to deforestation.
But in Palpite, in the southwest of the country, Bernabe Hernandez, 75, has transformed his garden into a paradise for the little bird.
“We never get tired of it. We always discover something new!” he said as he watched two of the hummingbirds (Mellisuga helenae) flying toward a suspended tub of water.
Cubans call them “zunzuncito,” a word that evokes the buzzing sound of their tiny wings, which can beat up to 100 times per minute.
When Hurricane Michelle, one of the strongest to hit Cuba, devastated crops and homes in the area in 2001, “the zunzuncito disappeared. There were no flowers left, many died,” according to local bird lover Orestes Martinez.
Hernandez moved to the village of Palpite after the hurricane destroyed his home. The government gave him land to rebuild on the edge of the Cienaga de Zapata, the largest wetland in the Caribbean.
“I moved here but there were no birds,” he told AFP.
“So I planted a ‘ponasi’ to provide shade and attract some birds,” he said, referring to a shrub whose fruit is sought after by birds.
He didn’t know that the bush’s flowers were a delicacy for bee hummingbirds, which quickly flocked to his garden, which also features mango, guava and avocado trees.
“When I first saw a buzzing bug, I thought it was an insect,” he said.
He decided to plant more shrubs and his lush garden was soon filled with hummingbirds, which nested in nearby woods.
– ‘The House of Hummingbirds’ –
Another hummingbird, the Cuban Emerald, which measures up to 10 centimeters, also frequents the garden, which was opened to tourists in 2003 and is now known as “The House of Hummingbirds”.
Visitors hold up bird feeders to attract the small birds closer.
Guides from Cienaga de Zapata National Park, known for its bird diversity of more than 175 species, helped Hernandez and his wife Juana Matos with the precise mixture of water and sugar contained in the feeders.
The two have become experts on bird behavior, highlighting the iridescent red head of a male bee hummingbird, which appears to wear a glowing mask — but only during mating season.
For amateur ornithologist Martinez, the garden is an important sanctuary for the tiny hummingbird, classified as “near threatened” by the IUCN, which estimates its population at between 22,000 and 60,000.
The garden helps “protect the bird. During the breeding season, the female can collect food for her chicks more easily.”
jb/fb/nro
