Bananaquit: Small and short-tailed with short, decurved black bill. Bahamensis is gray-black above with white throat and yellow belly with bold white stripe over eyes. Rump is yellow. Legs and feet are black. Martinique has dark throat. Weak fluttering flight, alternates rapid wing beats with brief periods of wings pulled to sides.
Range and Habitat
Bananaquit: Common resident throughout the West Indies, and the Caribbean mainland from Southern Mexico south to southern Brazil and northeast Argentina. In Cuba, it is considered a vagrant. A rare visitor to southern Florida. Most numerous in settled districts and secondary growth. Common in and around gardens where exotic flowers are abundant.
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.
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.
The one species in one genus of the Bananaquit family occurs in North America.
The Bananaquit is known for being a highly nectivorous (feeding on nectar) bird usually occurring around flowers.
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.
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.
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.
The Bananaquit is a non-migratory bird species and permanent resident in its large Neotropical range.
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.
Although a rare vagrant to the United States, the Bananaquit is a very common bird throughout the rest of its range.
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.