What鈥檚 it like to see one of the world鈥檚 most elusive birds, a species that hasn鈥檛 been documented in more than forty years? Ornithologist Andy Mitchell says he felt a shiver go down his spine when he spotted Cuba鈥檚 critically endangered and incredibly elusive in November. The bird, which was a regular in Cuba鈥檚 Zapata swamp back in the 1930s, has rarely been spotted anywhere since. There are no photographs or sound clips of it; only a dozen or so specimens are scattered in museums around the world.
Mitchell鈥檚 discovery was announced earlier this week by , which helped fund the rail search. He first began making trips to Cuba in the early 鈥90s, and for the past decade, he鈥檚 been keen on finding the critically endangered Zapata Rail. Until last year, though, Mitchell鈥檚 efforts to get funding for a research project in Cuba were stymied by political sanctions. At the end of 2013, he was finally able to secure a grant from BirdLife, but it still wasn鈥檛 enough to pull off the project. In swooped British soap magnate and birder Mark Constantine (owner of the company Lush), who rescued the mission with a generous cash infusion.
Fully bankrolled, Mitchell arrived in Cuba with plans to try two methods of capturing the rail: first, by placing traps around the Zapata Swamp, and second, by cutting narrow strips through the reeds and using trail cameras to monitor them. But the first plan had to be scrapped when a crucial component for the traps鈥攃hicken wire鈥攚asn鈥檛 available on the island. Mitchell and his three colleagues, Arturo Kirkconnell, Curator of Birds at the Natural History Museum in Havana, and brothers Orestes and Angel Martinez, both naturalists, forged ahead with plan B, slicing four strips through the saw grass reeds. The strips couldn't be too wide because rails don鈥檛 like to cross open areas, Mitchell says.
The team hit the jackpot on the second-to-last day of the month-long project. After hearing a rustle in the reeds, Mitchell peered through his binoculars and caught a glimpse of red. This must be the Spotted Rail, a more common bird that also makes its home in the Zapata swamp and has a bit of red on its beak, he thought to himself.
鈥淚 then realized that the red went [all] the way around the bill, whereas on the Spotted Rail it鈥檚 just a spot at the base of the bill, so I started to get a little bit excited鈥攖his is in the space of about five seconds鈥攁nd then the bird walked out into the middle and I realized there were no spots on it at all. Its beak was completely different,鈥 Mitchell says. 鈥淚 realized I was looking at the bird we鈥檇 been searching for.鈥
The bird stood there for a moment, then wandered off in the direction of another observation strip. Twenty minutes later, Angel Martinez also saw a Zapata Rail; they believe it was the same bird.
Sadly, neither sighting was captured by the trail cameras. Nor did recorders, running four or five hours of everyday, capture the bird鈥檚 call on tape--at least they don鈥檛 think so. Trouble is, there has never been a confirmed recording of the Zapata Rail鈥檚 call. (A few recordings made in the 鈥70s actually turned out to be from a Spotted Rail.)
Listening to the tapes at the end of the day, Mitchell tried to use a process of elimination to identify a call that might belong to the Zapata. 鈥淵ou would have the other swamp birds鈥攖he herons, the egrets, the [Spotted] Rail鈥攃alling and we were looking for that one thing that didn鈥檛 sound like any of them,鈥 Mitchell says. 鈥淎nd we never heard anything! Not one different thing.鈥
The team鈥檚 theory is that the Zapata Rail鈥檚 call is either very similar to one of the other rail鈥檚, or, more likely, that it doesn鈥檛 call at all. 鈥淲e think it鈥檚 probably silent,鈥 Mitchell says.
Mitchell will continue working on this hunch. He鈥檚 heading back to Cuba this week, specifically to, where authorities are increasing patrols in the area where the bird was sighted. With any luck, the new measures will help the Zapata Rail thrive and reproduce, so that future visitors can be caught off guard by the bird, scuttling unseen through the swaying sawgrass.