black above; gray throat; yellow breast (Dominican Republic; 2008-11-30)


Bananaquit
Coereba flaveola

Native Range: Latin America

Notes: this familiar bird throughout tropical and suntropical Latin America is the sole species in its taxonomic family; it is not clear to whom it is related most closely, with two prime candidates being tanagers (Thraupidae) and wood warblers (Parulidae); brightly colored and highly active; mostly a nectar sipper and hence a good pollinator of the flowers it visits; the nest is globular and untidy in appearance.


frontal view; white eye-stripe and wing patch (Panama; 2008-06-29)
sharp decurved bill (Panama; 2008-06-29)

probing a flower for nectar (Panama; 2008-06-29)
"look ma, no hands!" (Panama; 2008-06-29)

black mask and crown (Brazil ; 2007-11-04)
posing for a portrait (Dominican Republic; 2008-11-30)