As you may know, I’m headed to Jamaica in a couple of weeks for some sensational Caribbean birding. Will you be joining me at Hotel Mocking Bird Hill? There are many reasons why you should, not the least of which is to meet the delightful Doctor Bird.

Doctor Bird is the name given to the fetching avian identified in field guides as the Red-billed Hummingbird (Trochilus polytmus) or less formally as swallow tail, streamer-tail, swallow-streamer, or scissors-tail. This endemic hummingbird enjoys great prestige in Jamaica as both the national bird and the logo of Air Jamaica aircraft. According to Dr. Rebecca Tortello, the bird’s odd nickname has a variety of likely origins:

…there are many stories that explain the naming of the Doctor Bird. One states that it is called doctor because its long black tail (of the adult male) resembles the long black tail coats doctors were known to wear in the past. Another explains that it is called doctor because it gives medicine to the plants when it lances the flowers with its long bill. Yet another explains that is because it is associated with tobacco, a ritual plant also used as medicine by Taino shamans.

The Jamaican Information Service highlights an even more potent yet peculiar title for the good doctor:

According to Frederic Cassidy the bird is an object of superstition. The Arawaks spread the belief that the bird had magical powers. They called it the ‘God bird’, believing it was the reincarnation of dead souls. This is manifested in a folk song which says: “Doctor Bud a cunny bud, hard bud fe dead”. (It is a clever bird which cannot be easily killed).

It’s amazing how much attention elongated retrices attract. As if these assorted aliases were not confusing enough, the Doctor Bird appears naturally in two different flavors. Most authorities split the swallow tail of Jamaica’s eastern end, the Black-billed Streamertail (Trochilus scitulus) from T. polytmus. Others consider the black-bill a subspecies of the red-billed bird. Predictably, I support the taxonomy that will give me two lifers should I be fortunate enough to spot both birds! Get me a Doctor Bird, stat!