Bananaquits

The Yellowbreast Sugar Bird or Bananquit (Coereba flaveola newtoni) is the official Virgin Islands bird. It is flexible about food and habitat and so does well in gardens and among crops.

Bananaquits are only four inches long, very active and often vocal, calling with squeaks. They're often seen in small noisy groups. Males and females look alike and the ones you are most likely to see are easily recognized by a bright yellow belly and back.

Bananaquits always seem to be building nests. They will build a shaggy nest near houses as well as in the Dildo cactus whose spines serve as "nails" for the twigs of the nest. An untidy globe shaped nest is woven from grasses and narrow leaves by both members of a pair. When not breeding, they build even messier nests in which they sleep alone.