The "Building For The Future" Story

The Sugar Bird or Banaquit

It was an ordinary day.  Sitting at the outdoor table at Villa Jeluca typing a story to share on my blog.  Along the three foot high concrete wall about ten feet straight ahead of me sits two salad plates, a white bowl and a bright red cup.  The plates are filled with sugar granules while the cup and bowl are full of water.  For years Carol and I have been feeding the sugar birds (Banaquit Birds) during our trips to St. Martin.  On our first full day on the island we make a trip to the local Super Grande Marche (supermarket) to by essentials such as eggs, butter, lunch meat, cheese, drinks, snacks and of course a two pound bag of sugar.  

Sugar birds eating the sugar.

We don't use the sugar for coffee, tea or drinks, but to feed to the sugar birds.  These little birds have a dark grey, almost black, back with a black crown and sides of the head, grey throat, yellow chest and belly with a yellow strip on either side of the head, white rump and and black beak with a red stripe near the eye.  

Before long we had dozens of the colorful birds visiting with us.

Their beak is slender and curved in order to take nectar from island flowers as well as eating insects at times.  Both the male and female look the same, but the younger birds are duller in color intensity and have only a partially yellow eyebrow and throat.  

Rainy days we place the sugar on our outdoor table.
Here the sound of the shutter attracts their attention.

They range primarily from the tropical South America north to southern Mexico as well as the Caribbean islands.  As soon as we returned from the store we dig out the plates and sit them on the wall and fill them with sugar.  Doesn't take long before we have half a dozen or so of the neat little birds eating sugar from the plates.  

Nest that was being built in tree near our pool.

We add sugar as needed and last year we added the cup and bowl with water so they could bathe before or after eating the sugar.  And, they love it!!  Two days later, after word (tweets) got around that there was sugar at Jeluca, we had almost three dozen of the birds fighting for a spot on one of the plates.  

Sugar bird flys in to deposit it's find in the nest.

By the end of vacation we had purchased two more bags of sugar to feed the little guys and gals.  But, this year for the first time, we got to see a nest being build in the bush right next to our pool.  One day, after spending the better part of it at the beach, we took a late dip in our pool and Carol pointed out what looked like a nest in the bush next to the pool.  

If you look carefully in the lower-middle left
of the photo, you will see a sugar bird
entering the nest.  You can
just barely see yellow.  Click on the image
to enlarge it for better viewing.

Then, as we stood neck deep in the refreshing pool water, we watched as a few birds took turns taking just about anything into the underside of the nest and pushing the sides from the inside.  They stayed busy until after the sun was sinking in the sky and darkness began.  It took them almost a week to finish the nest, but it weathered a five inch rainstorm a few evenings later.  The sugar bird lays up to three eggs and we only wish we had been able to stay longer to see the young birds feeding in the dishes we had placed on the wall.  Our morning and evening entertainment was at the expense of our neat little sugar birds.  I'm sure they missed us when we left the island, but we missed them just as much.  Thanks for the memories little guys and gals.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.