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Hummingbirds and swifts | Apodiformes
Kolibries en gierzwaluwen | Colibríes y vencejos
An order of small birds built almost wholly for flight: the upper arm bone is extremely short and the hand long, so that the wing is a stiff blade driven from the shoulder joint. The feet are small and weak and serve for clinging, not walking. In the region the order comprises two families. With 35 species, the hummingbirds are the largest bird family of the region; they can hover and fly backwards and live on nectar and small insects. Many species are endemic to the Greater or Lesser Antilles, such as the Bee Hummingbird of Cuba and the streamertails of Jamaica, while Trinidad and Tobago hold mainly mainland species. The swifts, with eleven species, hunt insects high in the air; among them are the Antillean Palm Swift of the Greater Antilles and the Lesser Antillean Swift of the Lesser Antilles. Energy use is high, and in both families birds can pass into torpor to save energy.
Families in this order
- Swifts | Apodidae11 speciesA cigar-shaped body, long scythe-like wings held stiff in a glide, and a short tail, square or forked; the bill is tiny, but the gape tears open to below the eye, so that the head itself is the net. Everything happens in the air: the catching of drifting insects and spiders, drinking, bathing, picking up nest material, mating, and outside the breeding season sleeping too, circling at height. The catch is bound together in the throat with saliva into a ball and given to the chick in one delivery; the nest is a shallow cup of material caught on the wing, also glued with saliva, in a crevice, under a roof tile or in a chimney. One to three white eggs, a long stay in the nest, and a fledgling that leaves with a fully grown wing and is independent from that moment; the four short toes carry strong hooked claws and in many species can all be turned to point forward.
- Hummingbirds | Trochilidae36 speciesHummingbirds are the largest bird family of the region, with 35 species, and occur only in the Americas. The Greater Antilles hold a large number of endemic species, among them the Bee Hummingbird of Cuba, at just over five centimetres and about two grams the smallest bird in the world, and the streamertails of Jamaica, whose male carries two greatly elongated tail feathers. In the Lesser Antilles the caribs and the Antillean Crested Hummingbird are common, while Trinidad and Tobago hold a range of mainland species, such as hermits. The wing turns almost entirely at the shoulder joint, so that the bird can hover and also fly backwards. Nectar is taken with a long tongue split at the tip, supplemented by small insects and spiders. The sheen of throat and crown comes from the structure of the feather and is visible only from certain angles. The female alone builds a small cup nest of plant down and spider silk and lays two white eggs.