Overview
Bananaquit: Small and short-tailed with short, decurved black bill. Black above with white underparts. Belly washed with yellow with bold white stripe over eyes. Rump is yellow. Legs and feet are black. Weak fluttering flight, alternates rapid wing beats with brief periods of wings pulled to sides.
Range and Habitat
Bananaquit: Common in wooded areas and gardens of the Carribean, Mexico, Central and South America. A rare visitor to southern Florida, most often recorded in gardens containing exotic flowers.
Bananaquits (Coerebidae)
ORDER
The order PASSERIFORMES (pronounced pas-ser-i-FOR-meez), a large taxonomic order of one hundred eighteen families of birds, includes such families as the blackbirds, the thrushes, and the Bananaquit.
FAMILY TAXONOMY
The Bananaquit is the sole member of the Coerebidae (pronounced see-REH-bih-dee), a bird family occurring in Central America, the Caribbean, and South America.
NORTH AMERICA
The one species in one genus of the Bananaquit family occurs in North America.
KNOWN FOR
The Bananaquit is known for being a highly nectivorous (feeding on nectar) bird usually occurring around flowers.
PHYSICAL
The sole member of the Coeribidae is a small bird with a short tail, short wings, rather short legs with strong feet for acrobatic perching, and a medium length, downcurved bill adapted to its nectivorous behavior.
COLORATION
Although there are morphs with mostly dark plumage of this species on Grenada, most Bananaquits sport handsome black and white plumage with yellow on the breast and rump. Females and young birds look like faded versions of male birds but still show the distinctive white wing patches and white eyebrows characteristic of all Bananaquit plumages.
GEOGRAPHIC HABITAT
In North America, the Bananaquit is a rare vagrant to southern Florida. It is more likely to show up in gardens planted with the exotic, flowering plants it feeds upon. In its natural range further south, it is common in gardens and also occurs in forest.
MIGRATION
The Bananaquit is a non-migratory bird species and permanent resident in its large Neotropical range.
HABITS
The Bananaquit is an arboreal bird species that forages in treetops and bushes for insects, fruit, and nectar. Like hummingbirds, nectar makes up the largest part of its diet, this bird species often visiting hummingbird feeders to feed on sugar water. While it forages for small arthropods by gleaning them from the vegetation, the Bananaquit does not help pollinate flowers by feeding on their nectar. This is because it pierces the bases of flowers with its sharp bill to access the nectar, thus avoiding getting brushed with pollen.
CONSERVATION
Although a rare vagrant to the United States, the Bananaquit is a very common bird throughout the rest of its range.
INTERESTING FACTS
The Bananaquit often builds several nests, one for nesting and others just for sleeping. This could be a strategy to avoid the many nest predators found in tropical habitats of its range.