Bananaquit
Coereba flaveola
Also known as: Yellowbreast
About This Species
This small, bright yellow-and-black nectar feeder is a familiar sight in gardens, forest edges and mangroves across the Caribbean and parts of Central and South America, often visiting flowering shrubs, hummingbird feeders and fruit left out on porches. It forages actively and low, probing blossoms with its curved bill and flicking its wings, and is approachable enough to watch at close range in many resorts and reserves. Present year-round with no strong migration, it is easiest to see in the morning when flowers are freshest and feeding activity peaks.
Ethical Viewing Guidelines
- Because it readily visits feeders and gardens, the main disturbance risk is habituation to processed food rather than close approach, so plain sugar water rather than fruit juice or artificial sweeteners is the safer option if feeding at all.
- Wild bird protection laws differ across the many countries and territories in its range, so check local rules before handling, photographing at a nest, or removing any individual from the wild.
- A few metres of distance and avoiding flash photography at close range around nests is a reasonable general precaution anywhere in its range.
Seasonal Activity
1,235,558 sightings · 2000–2026
Citizen science records via GBIF
Classification
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Thraupidae
Photo
(c) Paul Joyce, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
CC-BY-NC-4.0
Occurrence data from GBIF.