There are birds that even if you have no idea at all what they look like or where they’re found have names that instantly transport you on a journey into dense forests and far-away places (eg Cherry-throated Tanager or Metallic-winged Sunbird), and there are birds with names that while hinting at something perhaps interesting don’t have quite the same immediate effect (eg Puerto Rican Tody).

On the other hand there are birds that are rare, found in places you can only dream of visiting, but are so ordinary-looking that when you see a photo of them with no supporting details or descriptions they hardly draw a second glance - try looking at a picture of, for example, a Small Tree-finch: not very exciting until you realise that you’d need to get yourself out to the Galapagos to see one (when if you’re anything like me it becomes a very interesting bird after all…).

On the other other hand there are birds that are so remarkable, so unlikely, so beautiful, and let’s face it, much as I hate the word, so (altogether now…) cute, that just one look and you know your heart will be forever their’s: for example the stunning Todus mexicanus, the San Pedrito, or as it’s known across the English-speaking world, the Puerto Rican Tody.

Male Puerto Rican Tody/San Pedrito de Puerto Rico Todus mexicanus.
Photo © Vanessa Ortiz

Female [note pale eyes] Puerto Rican Tody/San Pedrito de Puerto Rico Todus mexicanus.
Photo © Alberto López-Torres, http://puertoricanwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/

Described in Mark Oberle’s excellent Puerto Rico’s Birds in Photographs as “a tiny, brightly-coloured forest bird with a short tail, emerald green upperparts, and a bright red throat and lower bill” - which is far more restrained (and accurate) than the “wow”, “gorgeous”, and “what a bird” I’d have come up with - the Puerto Rican Tody is the sort of species that gets overseas birders ferreting for their passports and waving their credit cards at their local travel agents. I mean, just look at it…amazing…

“…a tiny, brightly-coloured forest bird” may be a fair description of this little gem (and at around just 6gm it’s a very small bird indeed), but what is a Tody? As with a surprising number of the Caribbean’s birds, Todies belong to a monophyletic family entirely confined to the region (in this case the Greater Antilles). Taxonomically the todies have been shuffled around over the years, but they are now (firmly?) placed in the Coraciiformes - the kingfishers and their relatives, which include a variety of some of the planet’s most beautiful birds eg the kingfishers themselves, bee-eaters, and motmots. (A 2004 study by Overton and Rhoads concluded that “the genus Todus is monophyletic and closer to the Hylomanes [tody-motmot] and Baryphthengus [Rufous and Rufous-capped Motmots] genera than the Chloroceryle and Ceryle genera”). If Coraciiformes had family photo-albums at home, can you imagine how often they would be brought out to show to visitors…?

Within the Todidae itself there are just five (very similar-looking) species which are thought to have evolved some 5 - 6 million years ago spread across four Greater Antillean islands: the Puerto Rican Tody Todus mexicanus [the species has never been recorded anywhere near Mexico and I'd be very interested to find out why it has the specific name mexicanus]; Jamaican Tody T. todus; Cuban Tody T. multicolor; and Narrow-billed T. angustirostris and Broad-billed T. subulatus Todies on Hispaniola.

All have similar habits too, sitting quietly with bill tilted up as they scan the forest under-storey for a wide-range of insect prey, flying up to grab a prey-item off the underside of a leaf or branch and then landing on a new perch (as in the excellent photo by Vanessa Ortiz below). This upright posture accounts for the Puerto Rican Tody’s local name: San Pedrito or ‘Little Saint Peter’ (Puerto Rico is of course predominantly Roman Catholic). Todies spend an unusual proportion of their time (up to 14 h/day) foraging, and like many other forest birds (including eg Motmots and Trogons) they sit so still that they are actually often hard to see despite their bright colours.

Male Puerto Rican Tody/San Pedrito de Puerto Rico Todus mexicanus.
Photo © Vanessa Ortiz

Unlike any other Puerto Rican bird (but like many kingfishers, to which they’re related of course) the Tody nests in tunnels in earth banks, which pairs apparently dig over an eight-week period. Each egg, according to Mark Oberle’s book, is equivalent to one quarter of the body weight of the female. This is more than twice as heavy, proportionately, as in most other bird species - if chickens laid eggs the same size they would be about the size of a baseball!

Todies also have one more very unusual trick up their pretty sleeves - a remarkable ability to thermo-regulate. Todies can lower their body temperatures by as much as 11° Centigrade: to put that in context our brain cells our destroyed if our internal temperature rises above its normal c) 36.5 - 37° by about 5 degrees! It’s a remarkable range to be able to manage, and the question of course is how do they do it: I don’t understand the mechanics obviously, but to quote a very interesting (and quite long) paper Todies maintain “a low active-phase body temperature, utilize heterothermy, hypothermia, and, under certain conditions, torpor. To date, the Puerto Rican Tody is the only species in the order Coraciiformes known to enter torpor”. The paper goes on to say that “Torpor in the [Tody] is clearly not a loss of thermoregulatory control, but rather a regulated response; and [it] is one of the few tropical birds known to possess this capability”.

The other question is why do they do it? According to the same paper, unlike most other coraciiformes Puerto Rican Todies don’t roost in groups within a tunnel or chamber (so sharing body heat) but roost singly in trees, open to the rain and low night temperatures: dropping their body temperature or going into actual torpor conserves metabolic energy in situations like that which probably makes the difference between surviving the night or dying. Presumably the ‘roosting alone’ came before the ‘ability to thermo-regulate’, and it’s interesting to speculate what, or how efficient, the stages in between reaching this ability might be - but however it evolved it just adds to the allure of this wonderful little bird.

IBAs where the Puerto Rican Tody has been recorded

So, assuming (like me) you’re now fairly interested to see one, where do you go? Puerto Rico, obviously, as it’s endemic to the island, but it’s apparently a common species there (BirdLife classify it as Least Concern) and regular locations include the trails along El Yunque, Guanica State Forest, and other forest reserves.

So how about a few more photographs before I finish this post? Seems like a good idea, so thanks once again to the photographers who have generously allowed 10,000 Birds to use their images…

Male Puerto Rican Tody/San Pedrito de Puerto Rico Todus mexicanus.
Photo © Gabriel Lugo www.gabriellugo.com

Female Puerto Rican Tody/San Pedrito de Puerto Rico Todus mexicanus.
Photo © Karoline Mena (karomc80@yahoo.com)

• Like to see what else we’ve posted for ‘Puerto Rico Month’? Just click http://10000birds.com/tag/puerto-rico-month

 

• If you live in Puerto Rico or have visited PR and would like to contribute photos or a guest post (return traffic to your blog/website should be good, folks) then please mail charlie10000birds AT gmail DOT com

How would you and a partner/friend like to win a 5 day ‘Endemic Dash’ around Puerto Rico with Kevin Loughlin’s WildSide Nature Tours?

You would? Read on…

Kevin (whose photographs of Puerto Rican Woodpecker and Green-throated Carib grace this post) has been organising trips to the Caribbean for many years and is generously offering two places on an Endemic Dash, one of his popular short trips around Puerto Rico on which participants will be taken to see as many of the island’s endemics as possible.

The Tour starts in San Juan - so you’ll need to get there (flights are frequent and cheap from many major US cities) - but all guiding fees, accommodations, ground transportation, and meals from dinner on day of arrival through breakfast on day of departure are included!

That would normally cost two people around 2500USD - enter and win and it’ll cost you just your passport fees, airport taxes, alcoholic beverages, laundry, phone calls or anything else of a purely personal nature! Which - if you go easy on the celebratory beers, wear the same socks for a few days, and keep short the gloating phone calls to your jealous mates back home - really won’t amount to very much at all…

We’ll be posting more info about this fantastic competition during Puerto Rico Month - yes, okay, not posting the questions now is our way of making sure you come back to visit us, but why would you want to miss some truly exceptional photographs of Puerto Rico’s endemics and some of the most up-to-date info on Puerto Rico’s biodiversity on the net anyway?