The status of the Eastern Phoebe ( Sayornis phoebe ) in Cuba

The Eastern Phoebe ( Sayornis phoebe ) is a common migrant that breeds in Canada and the USA and winters throughout the southeastern USA and northern Mexico. Apart from the Bahamas, few records for this species exist in the Caribbean region. Currently, a total of eight records are known from Cuba, occurring principally during late fall, after the passage of strong cold fronts, during severe winters throughout the species’ core wintering range, or both.

The Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) is typically a long-distance migrant, with its breeding range occurring principally in eastern Canada and the USA, extending north and west to southern Yukon, Canada, and south and east to the southern floodplain states in the USA (e.g., North and South Carolina;Sinclair et al. 2003, Gobris 2010, Weeks 2011).The Eastern Phoebe's wintering range is also extensive, with birds overwintering north to the edge of the frost line (i.e., Virginia and Delaware to Arkansas; Peterjohn et al. 1987) and as far south as the Yucatan and Veracruz, Mexico (Howell andWebb 1995, Weeks 2011).However, most wintering individuals occur along the Gulf of Mexico and throughout the entirety of Florida (Weeks 2011).
Little is known surrounding the migration of the species; however, it is one of the earliest migrant insectivores to arrive on its breeding grounds in the spring, typically arriving in March and April (Weeks 2011).Spring passage occurs predominantly as the frost line and emergence of insects spread north (Weeks 2011).
Fall migration is relatively late, and follows the same principle as spring migration: birds move south as the frost line appears and as insect abundance declines, with peak movements occurring between mid-October and November throughout its wintering range (Weeks 2011).
Apart from the Bahamas, few records exist for Eastern Phoebe in the Caribbean region (Garrido and Kirkconnell 2000, Arlott 2010, eBird 2016).We observed an individual Eastern Phoebe in Cuba on 15 and 19 February 2015 in Cayo Santa María, Sancti Spíritus.To our knowledge, this is the eighth record for Cuba (Table 1).Five observations are described in Garrido and Kirkconnell (2000), with records dating from the 19th century to 1960.Two records, both from the Parque Nacional Peninsula de Guanahacabibes, Pinar del Río, a location known for its importance to bird migration, are reported from eBird, occurring in November 2010 and 2012 (Fig. 1; Sebastiani et al. 2010, Good 2012).Aside from these Cuban records, there is also a single eBird record noted from the Cayman Islands on 1 and 3 October 2010 (Davey 2010).
The individual observed by the authors on 15 and 19 February 2015 displayed behavior and foraging characteristics consistent with the authors' experience of the species on its breeding grounds in Canada and the USA and was noted flycatching in a garden plot, along a narrow beach ridge > 100 m from shore.The bird was noted from the same location on both observation dates and during both observations was noted to consistently perch, low to the ground, along the lee side of the vegetation, presumably because it offered a more sheltered vantage.
Based on documented records of Eastern Phoebe in Cuba, birds appear to have occurred during fall migration, after the passage of strong cold fronts associated with strong northerly winds (e.g., November 2012), or during severe winters in the species' core wintering range (e.g., the winter of 2014-2015), when the frost line is farther south than is typical.
Whereas Eastern Phoebe appears to be an uncommon wintering bird in southern Mexico (Howell and Webb 1995), the large over-water flight (i.e., > 140 km) required by individuals to reach Cuba (either from Mexico or the USA) is likely the deciding factor in why so few records exist of this otherwise common species.It is an exceptional vagrant in Cuba (and much of the Caribbean region; Garrido andKirkconnell 2000, Arlott 2010), but the occurrence of severe winters throughout its core wintering range or exceptional cold fronts (with strong north winds) during fall migration, or both, may provide increased opportunities for this species to reach Cuba.

Published 29
June 2016, updated 11 December 2023 © 2016 Burrell and Knopf; licensee BirdsCaribbean.This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/),which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.