Todus Todus (The Jamaican Tody)

Found only in Jamaica, the Jamaican tody (Todus todus) is a small and colourful bird, predominantly green above, with a red throat and yellow underparts, with some pink on the sides. It has a large head and a long, flat bill. It perches on small branches, with its bills unturned and, like its Cuban relative (the Cuban tody), takes insects, larvae, and fruit. The Jamaican tody nests in burrows, which it excavates in muddy banks or rotted wood.

The Jamaican Tody usually garners the most number of votes as favorite bird of the tour each year. They are so adorable, colorful, easy to see, and somehow perfectly cute. There are only five species of today, all found in the Greater Antilles, but fossils from Wyoming, France, and other places hint at an interesting and quite possibly complex former biogeography of which we see only the final dribs and drabs.

Although this species may have a small range, it is not believed to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). Despite the fact that the population trend appears to be decreasing, the decline is not believed to be sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size has not been quantified, but it is not believed to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.