Green-throated Carib hummingbird photographed in Antigua

Male green-throated Carib hummingbird, photographed in 2016, on the island of Antigua.

Islands are hard for organisms to colonize without help from humans.  Hawaii, for example, only had two endemic mammals on it before humans showed up, a bat and a seal.  Birds are much more common on islands since they can fly.  Hawaii and the Galapagos have many endemic bird species, although humans have caused the extinction of over half of them on the Hawaiian Islands.  The creatures on these remote islands rarely exist elsewhere.

The Caribbean Islands are much closer to continents, and so there is a greater number of bird species.  Even so, these islands typically have their own native bird populations.  In the case of Antigua, there are three species of hummingbird that are present.  I have photographed two of them.  I will do a blog on the Antilles crested hummingbird tomorrow.  The one above, the green-throated carib hummingbird, can be found on many Caribbean Islands.  My bird book of Mexico and Central America does not indicate its presence there.  You can see a map of its range here.

There are only two species of Carib hummingbirds, the green-throated and the purple-throated, which I have never seen.  Both are endemic to the same area.

The female, seen in the image below, has a bill that is shorter and less curved than the male.  This allows the larger male access to blooms the female cannot access.    

Green-throated Carib hummingbird female.  Photographed on Antigua in 2016.

Thanks for reading.     

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com

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