Meet Cuban Tody

These very cute bird species are one of the smallest of hummingbirds. As the name suggests, these birds are native to Cuba. They live on the islands of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Jamaica and Hispaniola. Let’s get to know these birds in more detail.

The Cuban tody, also called Todus multicolor, is a bird that is characterized by the small size of the body and large head (Rieke).In fact, this bird is so small that it could fit in the palm of a grown person’s hand. The length of the Cuban tody’s head including the beak, is thirty-four millimeters and it’s cranium is only nine millimeters thick. The Cuban tody weighs between six to six and half grams (Anamalia Life). It has a broad flat bill with a bright green upper body, wings, and tail, a red throat and mandibles, pink flanks, and blue patches on either side of its neck. Its underside is all white except for the yellow under their tail (Alexander). The Cuban tody is the most vibrantly colored of the five species of todies (Wildlife Guideline), and it also has the smallest beak out of all the other species of todies (Animalia Life). The colors of the Cuban tody helps to camouflage them in their surroundings of plants and flowers (John). They are similar to a bird found on the opposite side of Cuba called Todus angustirostris, the narrow billed tody, but the two birds are differentiated by slight color differences (Handbook of the Birds).