Casa Bernabé: A shelter for the smallest bird in the world in the heart of Cuba | América Futura

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In 2002, Cyclone Michelle completely knocked down the house where Juana Matos and Bernabé Hernández lived. The Cuban government relocated them months later in a beautiful house surrounded by mango sticks and banana trees, in Pálpite, in the heart of Cuba. Bernabé made his new home quickly because from here “he could see more little birds”: some were easy to find in the forest that serves practically extended garden and others had to let them know that they were welcome. “I started to leave them the flowers they liked or some pieces of mature banana,” he explains. Twenty years later, when the hummingbirds, bumps and zunzunes – the smallest bird in the world – got used to flying over, nesting and playing in the Bernabé house, Hurricane Ian arrived. The largest managed to dodge the winds of up to 200 kilometers per hour, but the Zunzuncitos were falling behind the other in their patio. “I took them and took care of them until the storm passed,” he recalls. “I somehow gave them another house as they gave it to me.”

The fondness for the little birds – as Bernabé tells them – and specifically by the Zunzún, soon became a second job. In the morning he was going to his post in the warehouse of the market in which he was used for decades and in the afternoon he continued to enter the park, doing threshing, placing feeders, taking fruits … “Some were heard some other, but they were very few. Of the little ones I never met them at first,” he says. And one day, he explains passionate, he saw a tiny one of no more than five centimeters to drink a jícara, a small vessel made with a seed. “I ran to call a tour guide and said: ‘You are in luck. You have the smallest bird in your home,” recalls this 66 -year -old Cuban, who lives a few kilometers from the Ciénaga de Zapata (Matanzas), the largest wetland in the Caribbean.

Half of Zunzún (Mellisuga Helenae) is the beak. His body is around three centimeters and weighs just two or three grams. This endemic bird of Cuba very similar to a miniature hummingbird receives this affectionate nickname for the buzzing of its wings, which flutter between 80 and 100 times per second; A figure that the males triple during the mating season. In spite of the little girl (in English his name is a humment bee), he drinks up to eight times his weight and ingests in nectar and insects almost half of his body mass. But its blue and green colors are not the only thing that attracts attention: it is also known for its unique flight capabilities. It reaches 32 kilometers hour. The Zunzún, like the hummingbirds, are the only birds capable of flying back and braking in dry while flying in the air, which hinders the task of their predators.

Although at Casa Bernabé they arrive in lots of drinking fountains and take from the nectar Of the oranges flowers of Los Ponasís, it is less and less common to find them for the island. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), there are only between 22,000 and 66,000 Zunzunes on the island. According to the organization, the population of this species is decreasing “moderately fast” since 2000, as a result of forest loss and degradation and already disappearance of many areas where it was previously considered distributed. “The species could be included soon in the list of threatened species,” reads the web.

After the finding in Bernabé’s house, several teams from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment of Cuba arrived, better known by the acronym Citma, to give guidelines on what the ideal proportion of sugar was in drinking fountains (one per four of water), what trees they attracted them and what to do in case they nest. “Even they were impressed to see them so close. Biologists also came to study them and decided to do it at home. They said it was not so normal to reach so many to the same place,” he recalls. Asked about the secret, Bernabé smiles before answering: “Well look As mine are the ones who have everyone in Cuba, so it must be that they fall nice. I think they come because I am his friend. ”Doña Juana nods convinced that that is the main reason.” The little birds do not scare him, they come where he is. That does not happen with anyone else, ”says the 71 -year -old woman.

Despite not being a migratory bird, it is restless and adventurous. The Zunzún is able to visit some 1,500 flowers a day and in it consumes 10 times what a person running a marathon. These tiny colorful beings have adapted to the cold night climate through lethargy. During the nights, its body temperature, which is normally 41 ° C and is one of the highest in the animal kingdom, descends until it reaches the external temperature to conserve energy.

“But what is this beauty?” Asks as soon as a young Dominican who seeks the cell phone in his bag is hurried. “There are many!” He adds. Her husband takes her hands to the hip and observes them carefully without moving. “Welcome to the house of the birds,” says Risueño Bernabé, who invites them to sit on a small wooden porch to dodge the inclement Cuban sun. The ornithologist amateur hold one of the drinking fountains in the air and calls them: “PFF, PFFF, PFFF. Come to drink. “Seconds later, a hummingbird and a tiny Zunzún approach the pitorro.” Here they have it, this little girl manages to give 80 flutters per second, “he tells two groups of tourists who accumulate on the terrace to read the explanatory signals he has hanging from the roof and touch the turtle’s young that returns to his habitat. and mango.

“This is my second time here,” says the Dominican. “Everyone in Pálpite talks about this house, it is a mandatory stop.” The key that your home became a tourist point of the coastal municipality is mouth to mouth. This Wednesday has received at least thirty people from Russia, France and the Dominican Republic who pay a dollar for the visit. For a decade, Bernabé replaced his work as a winemaker to devote himself fully to his passion and a much more lucrative business. His brother -in -law tells that in high seasons, the tourist guaguas get between the narrow alleyways of the neighborhood and stop at his door. Thanks to this Sanctuary of Birds, four of the residents of the Hernández Matos mounted small palates and teas. “Tourism benefits us all, hopefully they will arrive more,” he says.

While Bernabé entertains foreigners with curious data of this endearing little bird, Doña Juana is carefully drawing the wood crafts made by an artist friend in Camagüey, postcards, shirts with different birds under the word Cubasome bottles of rum and beans. “Do you help me upload the boxes, my love?” He asks a tourist. “My hands already get tired,” he explains with love. Meanwhile, a ricord emerald hummingbirds fly close and a carpenter is heard a few steps further. “Do lunch serve here?” Asks the tourist at the end of his task. “Not yet, but surely soon. Meanwhile, there are very rich palates close …”

The friendship The little birds have changed their lives. Birds have become a solid source of income and a responsibility that they prefer not to delegate. Bernabé says that the water changes four or five times a day “so that they drink her fresh” and that they almost do not come out so that they do not stay alone. “If we have to leave one or two days, we call my brother to sleep here and call us every time to know that everyone is fine,” says Doña Juana. Far from being a burden, for both it has become a purpose. Therefore, Bernabé does not even think about spending the witness. “Oh no, they still have this friend for a while. I am never going to get tired of this,”