Jamaican tody
Jamaican tody | |
---|---|
Photo of Jamaican tody (Todus todus) taken by Dominic Sherony | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Coraciiformes |
Family: | Todidae
|
Genus: | Todus |
Species: | T. todus
|
Binomial name | |
Todus todus | |
Green color shows range of species Todus todus - only found in Jamaica | |
Synonyms | |
|
The Jamaican tody (Todus todus) is a species of bird in the genus Local names for the Jamaican tody include rasta bird, robin and robin redbreast.
Taxonomy
It was thought that the genus
The Jamaican tody is a member of the genus, Todus, which is composed of five species restricted to the Greater Antilles. All five species are very similar morphologically.[2] The Cuban tody (Todus multicolor) is confined to the island of Cuba and can be found throughout the island, but tends to be more concentrated in shoreline habitats.[2] The narrow-billed tody (Todus angustirostris) and the broad-billed tody (Todus subulatus) are both endemic to Hispaniola, composed of the Dominican Republic and Haiti.[2] The narrow-billed tody is mainly found in very humid montane forest while the broad-billed tody generally inhabits very dry forest and sub-desert areas.[2] However, both of these species can be found in either habitat and are most equally distributed in dry, lower montane forests.[2] The Puerto Rican tody (Todus mexicanus) is only found on the island of Puerto Rico.[2] Similar to other tody species, they can be found in a variety of habitats ranging from the moist, Luquillo Rainforest to the more dry, limestone forest.[2]
Description
The Jamaican tody is a small, chunky bird that averages about 9 cm (or 4.25”) in size.[5][6] The wing size for all tody species ranges between 42.8mm and 50.3mm.[2] The Jamaican tody's wing size is intermediate between these sizes (about 46mm) compared to the Cuban and Puerto Rican todies, which tend to have smaller wings, and the broad-billed tody, which has the largest.[2] The wing size of the Jamaican tody correlates with their average flight distance, which is about 1.5m, and their maximum flight distance, which is 26m.[2] The average weight of the Jamaican tody is around 6.4 grams.[2] They have a bright green head, red throat and a long, broad and flat red bill.[2][5] They look very similar to the Puerto Rican tody (Todus mexicanus) but have a whitish breast that is blended with green, becoming even slightly yellow on the abdomen and under the tail-coverts.[6][7] The Jamaican tody also has blue-gray subauricular feathers.[2] Their legs and feet are reddish brown.[7] Todies are generally a sexually monomorphic genus.[2][7] However, some tody species have different eye colors between males and females, but in the Jamaican tody, this iris color is undistinguishable.[2] Jamaican todies are very quiet birds during nonbreeding months but can be heard more frequently during the spring and summer.[2] The vocalizations of the Jamaican tody are predominately a loud beep sound and a throat-rattle.[2] (see external link below) The loud beep is a nasal sounding note that is similar in length to the loud beep of the Puerto Rican tody.[2] The throat-rattling is a rapid, harsh-sounding noise that is produced often in territorial defense.[2]
Distribution and habitat
The Jamaican tody is endemic to Jamaica.
Ecology and behavior
Maintenance behavior
Todies can be found generally performing two bathing techniques, bathing in flight after a dive and bathing in wet plant leaves or in light rain.[2] They also perform bill-wiping, where they will clean both sides of their beak, from base to tip, especially after eating or preening and fluffing their feathers.[2] To fluff their head feathers, they will shake their head back and forth in a fast, jerky movement.[2] Todies also preen their feathers with their flat bills and this mainly occurs in their breast and wing areas on their body.[2]
Breeding
The Jamaican tody is a relatively quiet bird during the non-breeding season. However during the breeding season, they perform increased wing-rattling for both courtship and to show other todies that this is their territory.[2][5] Courtship feeding has also been observed in the Jamaican tody where a dead insect is exchanged between two partners.[2] In one observation of Jamaican tody copulation, the male chased the female a short distance and once she landed, he swooped down on her and held her crown while performing 29 cloacal contacts in the span of 35 seconds.[2] Soon after, throat-rattles were heard and the two todies flew away in separate directions.[2]
Jamaican todies can sometimes be found digging, in which they mainly use their
Food and feeding
The Jamaican tody uses a sit-and-watch foraging strategy to capture its prey, which is similar to other todies in the genus Todus that can be found on nearby islands in the
Threats to survival
Forest fragmentation may have an impact on the Jamaican tody. When the todies were translocated between 0.6km and 4km in a study, only 62% returned to their territories.
Relationship to humans
A large number of avian
Status
According to the
References
- ^ . Retrieved 20 November 2021.
- ^ .
- ^ )
- ^ PMID 15223035.
- ^ )
- ^ a b c Bond, James (1993). The Peterson Field Guide Series: A Field Guide to Birds of the West Indies. Houghton Mifflin Company.
- ^ ISSN 0019-1019.
- ^ "Jamaican Tody - Introduction | Neotropical Birds Online". neotropical.birds.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2019-12-05.
- ^ JSTOR 4067933.
- ^ ISSN 0006-3207.
- ^ S2CID 21931836.