Bananaquit Life History

Habitat

Bananaquits are most common in gardens, shrubby areas, forest edges, and other habitats where they can easily access flowering plants. This species occurs in a wide range of habitats across its range, but it is typically rare or absent from very dry habitats and extensive rainforest. It is typically more common in lowlands, but it does occur up to 2,400–2,600 meters (7,900–8,500 feet) in the Andes.

Food

Bananaquits feed mainly on nectar, using their curved, pointed bills to either probe into flowers to sip nectar the way hummingbirds do, or pierce them at the base to allow nectar to flow out. They also visit hummingbird feeders. Adults eat some small fruits and a few insects but feed insects to young birds. Bananaquits are very active foragers, quickly checking a flower for nectar and then rapidly moving on to the next flower.

Nesting

Nest Placement

Bananaquits build their nests in shrubs or trees, typically 1.5–4 meters (5–13 feet) high but occasionally as high as 15 meters (49 feet).

Nest Description

The nest is a large, messy, globelike structure with a domed roof and side entrance, placed in a fork or out on the end of a limb. It is built with grasses, twigs, dead leaves, mosses, or other plant fibers.

Nesting Facts

Behavior

Bananaquits are active and conspicuous birds—singing and calling persistently, moving quickly from tree to tree, and sometimes hanging upside down to extract nectar from flowers. Due to their small size, they can sometimes disappear behind large leaves and dense foliage. Individuals typically travel alone, in pairs, or in small family groups.

Bananaquits build “dormitory nests,” structures that can hold several roosting birds at night, and rotate between these nests from night to night. During the breeding season, the female alone incubates the eggs. Then both the female and male feed the nestlings, which leave the nest after 17–19 days.

Conservation

The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists Bananaquit’s conservation status as Least Concern. The population trend appears to be decreasing, but the species has an extremely large range and extremely large population size (estimated at 5–50 million mature individuals).

Credits

BirdLife International. 2021. Coereba flaveola. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021: e.T22722080A137082125. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-3.RLTS.T22722080A137082125.en.

Hilty, S. and D. A. Christie (2020). Bananaquit (Coereba flaveola), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.banana.01

Howell, S. N. G., and S. Webb (1995). A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America. Oxford University Press, New York, NY, USA.

Raffaele, H. A., J. Wiley, O. Garrido, A. Keith, and J. Raffaele (1998). A Guide to the Birds of the West Indies. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA.

Ridgely, R. S., J. A. Gwynne, G. Tudor, and M. Argel (2016). Birds of Brazil: The Atlantic Forest of Southeast Brazil including São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, USA.

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