Here's the ubiquitous and colorful Bananaquit, Coerba flaveola. We not only encountered the Bananquit every single day, we usually saw scores of them, and a few even entered the dining room at Asa Wright to inspect our plates. The Bananaquits readily sip from the hummingbird feeders, often dominating them, and are seen on the flowers of virtually every flowering tree in Trinidad-Tobago. They also eat fruit, and probably some insects.
The ornithologists have not decided where to put the Bananaquit in the taxonomic heirarchy. It once was given it own monotypic family (Coerebidae), and today is often included in the Tanager Family (Thraupidae). The AOU remains on the fence about it, placing it in Incertae sedis, which means "position unknown", a group of birds that have uncertain relationships with established families. Some authorities suggest that the multitude (30+) of Bananaquit subspecies differ enough that they should be split into 3 or more distinct species! Richard ffrench (Birds of Trinidad-Tobago) wrote that some authors considered it to be a Wood-warbler!
Will follow this up with more birds from the Tanager Family, so taxonomy buffs may want to check this current Wiki reference:
You'll note that some of your favorite U.S. Tanagers, in the genus Piranga, have been taken out of the Tanager Family and are now in with the Cardinalidae! Heck, if they can more the Falcons to a position between the Woodpeckers and the Flycatchers, anything's possible!
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