Bananaquit (Coereba flaveola)

Identification & Behavior: ~10 cm (4 in). The Bananaquit has gray upperparts and yellow underparts. The head is patterned with a broad white superciliary and gray throat. The bill is dark, thin, and decurved. It forages in a variety of habitats including forest canopy, forest edges, shrubbery, and green spaces in urban areas. The plumage pattern and bill shape are unique but see Three-striped Warbler.

Status: The Bananaquit is common and widespread in northwest Peru and the Marañon Drainage, Amazonia and the east slope of the Andes towards the south. It also occurs in Co, Ec, Br, and Bo.

Name in Spanish: Mielero Común.

Sub-species: Bananaquit (Coereba flaveola intermedia) (Salvadori and Festa), 1899.  SW Colombia (Nariño), W Ecuador and N Peru (from San Martín, and Loreto) E to W Brazil and S Venezuela (SW Amazonas).
(Coereba flaveola magnirostris), (Taczanowski), 1880.  Peru in upper Marañón Valley (in Piura, Cajamarca and E Libertad).
(Coereba flaveola pacifica), Lowe, 1912.  W Peru (NW Lambayeque, W Libertad and Ancash).
(Coereba flaveola dispar), J. T. Zimmer, 1942.  C & SE Peru (from S San Martín) S to Bolivia (La Paz).
(Coereba flaveola chloropyga) (Cabanis), 1850.  C Peru (from Huánuco and Junín) S to C Bolivia (to Santa Cruz), then E across SC & E Brazil (to Ceará and Pernambuco, then S to Rio Grande do Sul) and S to E Paraguay, NE Argentina (Misiones) and extreme N Uruguay.

Meaning of Name: Coereba: Tupí name Guiracoereba for a finch-sized blue, black and yellow nectar-eating bird (Marcgrave 1648). flaveola: L. flavus= golden, yellow, flaveolus= yellowish.

See more of the Family Thraupidae