Bananaquits (Coereba flaveola) are quite common in the lowland areas of Costa Rica and throughout Central America and the Caribbean. These active little birds are rarely silent and can easily be located by their almost constant high-pitched chipping and twittering calls. This Bananaquit was still happily singing away even with a mouth full of orange-colored palm fruit.

Bananaquits feed on a variety of fruits and flower nectar and will readily come to fruit feeders, where they are especially fond of sliced oranges and bananas. Although Bananaquits have a definite preference for sweet foods like ripe fruit and sugary nectar, these birds will also eat any small insects and spiders that they happen across.

A Bananaquit is olive-gray above and bright yellow below with a dull black crown and eye-stripe, a white line over the eyes, a small white patch at the edge of the wings, and a decurved, black bill that is used to probe and pierce flowers for nectar.