Nesophlox lyrura
The Inagua Woodstar, a jewel among the avian world, is a tiny and exquisitely beautiful hummingbird endemic to the remote islands of Great and Little Inagua in the Bahamas. Males boast a dazzling iridescent magenta to violet gorget that flashes brilliantly in the sunlight, contrasting with a shimmering green back and a strikingly unique, deeply forked, lyre-shaped tail, a key identifier. Females, while more subtly colored with a dull green back and whitish underparts often marked with dusky s...
This species primarily inhabits dry scrubland, coppice forests, and edges of pine woodlands, thriving in low-lying coastal and interior areas of its island home.
Their diet consists primarily of nectar gathered from a variety of flowering plants, supplemented with small insects and spiders hawked in mid-air or gleaned from vegetation.
Inagua Woodstars are diurnal and fiercely energetic, spending their days actively foraging. Males are highly territorial, defending prime feeding grounds and display perches with aerial chases and assertive calls, often performing elaborate pendulum displays to attract mates. Courtship involves r...
The Inagua Woodstar is strictly endemic to the isolated islands of Great Inagua and Little Inagua within the southern Bahamas archipelago. It is a resident species, meaning it does not undertake seasonal migrations, remaining year-round within its limited island range. This distribution pattern c...
Endangered
- The Inagua Woodstar is a true island endemic, found nowhere else in the world except the two Inagua islands in the Bahamas. - Its scientific name, Nesophlox lyrura, refers to its island home ('nesos' for island) and the male's distinctive lyre-shaped tail ('lyrura' for lyre-tailed). - Despite i...