BananaquitBananaquitCoereba flaveola
- ORDER: Passeriformes
- FAMILY: Thraupidae
Basic Description
The Bananaquit is one of the great sugar lovers of the bird world. This hyperactive little bird drinks nectar by probing into flowers, piercing flower bases with its sharp, curved bill, or visiting hummingbird feeders. Bold individuals may even steal sugar from outdoor restaurant tables. Their plumage and song varies across the large range, but the unique bill, pinkish gape, bold face pattern, and yellowish underparts make them distinctive. Listen for their raspy, shrill song in gardens, shrubby areas, and forest edges wherever plants are in flower.
More ID InfoOther Names
- Platanero (Spanish)
- Sucrier à ventre jaune (French)
- Cool Facts
- Bananaquits are one of the characteristic birds of the Caribbean, occurring on islands both large and small from the Bahamas to the Venezuelan coast. But they are oddly absent from the largest Caribbean island—Cuba—despite being very common on neighboring Jamaica and Hispaniola.
- As a very common and conspicuous species, Bananaquit has many colorful local names on Caribbean islands, including teasy, sugar bird, beeny bird, see see bird, and suikerdiefje (Dutch for sugar thief).
- Bananaquits are sometimes uninvited guests at open-air restaurants in the Caribbean and northern South America. Some birds in these areas are very bold, even taking sugar from occupied tables.
- Bananaquits look and act a lot like warblers, and at times have been placed in the New World warbler family (Parulidae) or in their own family (Coerebidae). Using modern genetic techniques, ornithologists now treat Bananaquit as a member of the tanager family (Thraupidae).