Catalogue of Cuban fossil and subfossil birds

Summary. All information relating to the Cuban palaeo-avifauna since the first published list in 1928 to the present, is summarised and presented as a catalogue with commentary. I update data on the composition, systematics and distribution of fossil and subfossil birds from Quaternary (Late Pleistocene-Holocene interval) deposits in Cuba, with a necessary critical review. Thirty-six taxa (30 extinct, two poorly represented and apparently also extinct, and four extirpated) are listed as valid records in Section I, under 14 families, with Teratornithidae the only extinct family grouping. Birds of prey and scavengers constitute 72.2% of these taxa, with Accipitridae (22.2%) and Falconidae (16.6%) the best represented, followed by nocturnal raptors. Sections II and III comment on and discuss material referred to 29 taxa, of which one is of dubious identity and the others misidentified and / or synonymised at class, family, genus or species level. Cuban neospecies currently known in paleontological localities throughout the archipelago are listed in Section IV; 49 are identified (14 considered today as endemic species, including six endemic genera) in 26 families.