a funny little bajan bird...

These little birds like to eat some kind of seed or insect from the plants right out our front window, and I like to watch them do it. It took me a little while though to realize they were behind the strange screeching noises coming from the trees. I still think they don't sound anything like they look like they should. Here is a video (really an audio) so you can hear what they sound like, but you can't really see the bird at all so I took the still shots to show you what they look like.

I just looked the bird up in my Birds of the West Indies book (Thanks Judy and Jim!) and they are Bananquits. We had a very different Bananquit in the Bahamas, but it looks like there are quite a few varieties spread out over the Caribbean. I like the description of their call the book gives "variable voice. Generally thin, high-pitched ticks, clicks and insect-like buzzes. Call note is unmusical tsip." When I first heard them I thought they were something like cicadas buzzing in the trees. I never did get a really clear picture through my window, so here is one from the Internet... They are really cute little guys, and seem pretty social.