Narrator explores the guavairo's conservation status

We're here to see, or maybe just hear, the guavairo, the Puerto Rican nightjar. This bird is an endangered species, and the subtropical dry forest is its habitat. In dry seasons, some trees lose their leaves to conserve water, and the guavairo nests on the ground in those leaves. The leaves camouflage it nicely. It's a brown and black bird, about the size of a large grapefruit, with a white band on its neck and a squat little face that looks a bit judgmental. Google it. It's adorable. Sprouting out of that judgy little face are black, wispy, modified feathers called vibrisas. There's sensors to help it hunt insects, and they happen to look like whiskers. So if you told me Jim Henson made the guapairo, I'd believe you. Their bird song is distinctive, too. The movement against Essencia has adopted the guavairo as a kind of mascot because it's so particular to this area. It's an endemic species, which means it's only found in Puerto Rico. But Echter points out, more specifically, it evolved here. And it evolved at a time when nesting on the ground wasn't dangerous. It used to be found all across Puerto Rico, particularly around the coasts. But then, to deal with a rat problem in the sugarcane fields during the Spanish colonization, plantation owners introduced these small Indian mongoose to puerto Rico. In 1870, It did not go well. The mongoose is diurnal and rats are nocturnal, so the rats were fine. And during the day, the mongoose would hunt the sleepy guavairos nesting on the forest floor. Between that and habitat loss, it was believed that the guavaido went extinct. But then in the 1960s, it was rediscovered near here, in Guanica. It was declared an.