T-T: Rufous-tailed Jacamar - Galbula ruficauda

"Jacamar!" It has quite ring to it, and the bird itself more than delivers. Imagine a giant hummingbird that hunts from a perch like a flycatcher and sallies out to catch any an every sort of flying insect on the wing. Like a hummer, it has a long pointed pill, iridescent green back, and even tiny feet. Note the rufous chest and white throat. They build nesting tunnels into a sandy bank, like kingfishers and motmots
No relation to hummers, of course, as the Jacamar family (Galbulidae) is in the order Piciformes, along with the Woopeckers, Puffbirds, Barbets, Honeyguides and Toucans. I would have guessed the Jacamars were in the Coraciiformes, along with the Motmots and Bee-eaters, but not so, although they are closely related orders.

Taxonomy-
There are 18 species in the Jacamar family, distributed among 5 genera. They are New World only, like the hummers, and range from SE Mexico well down into tropical South America.

The genus Galbula is the largest, with 10 species. The Rufous-tailed Jacamar, G. ruficauda, is the most numerous and wide-ranging of the jacamars, and is found from Mexico down to northern Brazil and Argentina. Trindad-Tobago has the nominate subspecies, G. r. ruficauda. T-T has only one Jacamar, just as it has only one Motmot.

The bird seen here was about 30 yards away, so forgive the lack of sharpness.