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Red-billed Streamertail | Trochilus polytmus
Roodsnavelwimpelstaart | Colibrí portacintas piquirrojo
The Red-billed Streamertail is a hummingbird found only in Jamaica, where it is the national bird, known locally as the doctor bird. The male carries two tail feathers that make up more than half of its total length. In the far east of the island it is replaced by Black-billed Streamertail.
Voice
A loud metallic ting or teet, and a prolonged twink-twink-twink that drops at the end. In flight the male produces a whirring hum in time with the wingbeat, produced by the eighth primary.
Recording: Bobby Wilcox — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
10–25 cm; the female measures about 10.5 cm, the male 22–25 cm, of which 10–13 cm is accounted for by two greatly elongated black tail feathers. These streamers cross at rest and ripple behind the bird in flight. The male is glittering emerald green with a black crown and dark wings. The bill is coral red with a black tip. The female is green above and white below, with green spotting on the flanks; the tail is short, with white tips to the outer feathers.
Confusion species
Black-billed Streamertail Trochilus scitulus is identical in shape and plumage but has an all-black bill; in the narrow zone where the two meet, intermediate birds occur with partly red bills. Jamaican Mango Anthracothorax mango is larger and dark purplish-black, with a curved black bill and no streamers. Vervain Hummingbird Mellisuga minima is much smaller, around 6 cm, with a short straight black bill and dull green upperparts.
Habitat
Almost any wooded or semi-open country with flowering plants, from sea level to about 1,500 m: moist montane forest, lowland forest, secondary growth, the limestone forest of the Cockpit Country, coffee plantations, gardens and parks. It avoids mangroves and the driest areas. It takes nectar from a wide range of native and introduced flowers and catches small insects in flight.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
Only in Jamaica, across almost the whole island except the far east, where Black-billed Streamertail occurs; the boundary lies in the east of the island, in a narrow contact zone. Commonest at middle elevations. The species does not occur outside Jamaica.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Anywhere in Jamaica in gardens with flowering shrubs, including Kingston and the tourist resorts on the coast. At Rocklands, in the hills above Montego Bay, birds have for decades come to sugar water held by visitors in small bottles and can be seen at very close range. Males with full streamers are best photographed when they return to a regular lookout perch.
Conservation status
Not threatened. The species is numerous and adapts well to gardens and plantations. Jamaica's original forest has however shrunk greatly, and hurricanes can temporarily reduce flowering and with it the food supply.
Scientific name
Trochilus polytmus | Linnaeus, 1758
Linnaeus described the species in 1758 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. He introduced the genus Trochilus in that same work. Trochilus comes from the Greek trokhilos, a small bird that according to Herodotus picked crocodiles' teeth clean; Linnaeus applied the name to the hummingbirds. polytmus comes from the Greek polutimos 'costly, very valuable', after the jewel-like plumage. The specimen the first description was based on came from Jamaica.