Queen for a day

In Puerto Rico, as in much of the islands of the Caribbean, there is this tiny bird, known here as the reinita, or little queen. Its English name is Bananaquit, and it has always been one of my favorite birds. It's one of the things I miss about Puerto Rico in Ohio (along with the ubiquitous lagartijos or anolis -- little green or brown lizards, which Magellan used to love to chase as a kitten when we lived here).

At my parents' apartment, my parents always used to keep a small bowl full of water because the reinitas and other birds not only drink from the bowl but also love to take splashy baths in the water. Sometimes they have veritable pool parties where a few of them come at one time and spill so much water out of the bowl that it soon needs refilling.

Two days ago, I rescued the water bowl, which my mom had taken off its perch on the balcony's railing and put away for fear of the dengue mosquito, which breeds in dirty water. For the past few weeks, if not months, there really has been no time to pay attention to the water bowl.

But a sign that things are slowly returning to normal, or to as normal as they can be at this point, is the fact that just as quickly as I set the bowl out, a reinita came and took her beauty bath. I captured some of the bath with my trusty digital camera, which unfortunately has its limitations and, thus, the picture doesn't do justice to the cheery scene.

But, if you click on the photo, you might notice that fluffed-up condition of the reinita (actually, because it's a relatively larger bird I'm thinking it might be a male, since the female, which took her own bath just now, is much, much smaller).

The tiny birds are strikingly beautiful, with night-black plumage, a bright-yellow chest and white necks with white stripes along their eyes. They have a curved beak, which serves their nectar feeding habits and they chirp loudly and commandingly in an unmistakable "I want your attention now!" kind of way (very Puerto Rican, if I may say so myself!).

I'm hoping that when my husband joins us next week and brings his good camera then we'll get a better picture of the reinita to share with you so you can fully appreciate the beauty and zest for fun of this tiniest and cutest of birds.