Todus

The genus Todus was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 with the Jamaican tody (Todus todus) as the type species.{{ cite book | last=Brisson | first=Mathurin Jacques | author-link=Mathurin Jacques Brisson | year=1760 | title=Ornithologie, ou, Méthode Contenant la Division des Oiseaux en Ordres, Sections, Genres, Especes & leurs Variétés | language=French, Latin | at=[https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/36010442 Vol. 1, p. 44], [https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/36195715 Vol. 4, p. 528] | place=Paris | publisher=Jean-Baptiste Bauche }}{{ cite book | editor-last=Peters | editor-first=James Lee | editor-link=James L. Peters | year=1945 | title=Check-list of Birds of the World | volume=5 | publisher=Harvard University Press | place=Cambridge, Massachusetts | page=220 | url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14480231 }} Todus is a Latin word for a small bird mentioned by the Roman playwright Plautus and the grammarian Sextus Pompeius Festus.{{cite book | last=Jobling | first=James A. | year=2010| title=The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | url=https://archive.org/details/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling | publisher=Christopher Helm | location=London | isbn= 978-1-4081-2501-4 | page=[https://archive.org/details/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling/page/n387 387] }} This name had earlier been used for the Jamaican tody by the Irish physician Patrick Browne in his book The Civil and Natural History of Jamaica that was published in 1756.{{ cite book | last=Browne | first=Patrick | author-link=Patrick Browne (physician) | year=1756 | title=The Civil and Natural History of Jamaica | place=London | publisher=Printed for the author, and sold by T. Osborne and J. Shipton | page=476 | url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/11267997 }}

Five species are recognized:{{Cite journal|title=IOC World Bird List 6.4|url=http://www.worldbirdnames.org/ioc-lists/crossref|journal=IOC World Bird List Datasets|doi=10.14344/ioc.ml.6.4|doi-access=free}}

• Emperor fairywren (as Todus cyanocephalus){{Cite web|url=https://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/species.jsp?lang=EN&avibaseid=547E21A1&sec=summary&ssver=1|title=Malurus cyanocephalus (Emperor Fairywren) - Avibase|website=avibase.bsc-eoc.org|access-date=2017-11-16}}
• Leaden flycatcher (as Todus rubecula){{Cite web|url=http://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/species.jsp?avibaseid=CCCF40F2B83287B0|title=Myiagra rubecula - Avibase|website=avibase.bsc-eoc.org|access-date=2017-01-24}}

Todies range in weight from 5 to 7 g and in length from 10 to 11.5 cm. They have colourful plumage and resemble kingfishers in their general shape. They have green heads, backs and wings, red throats (absent in immature Puerto Rican, broad-billed, and narrow-billed Todies) with a white and blue-grey stripe on each side, and yellow undertail coverts; the colour of the rest of the undersides is pale and varies according to species. The irises are pale grey. They have long, flattened bills (as do many flycatching birds) with serrated edges; the upper mandible is black and the lower is red with a little black. The legs, and especially the feet, are small. Todies are highly vocal, except that the Jamaican tody seldom calls in the non-breeding season (August to November); they give simple, unmusical buzzing notes, beeps, and guttural rattles, puffing their throats out with every call. Their wings produce a "strange, whirring rattle", though mostly when courting or defending territory in the Puerto Rican tody.

Todies are generally sedentary; the longest single flight known for the broad-billed tody is 40 m. Their activity is greatest in the morning when sunny weather follows rain, and in March and September.

Like most of the Coraciiformes, todies nest in tunnels, which they dig with their beaks and feet in steep banks or rotten tree trunks. The tunnel is 30 cm long in the Cuban and narrow-billed Todies, 30 to 60 cm in the broad-billed tody, and ends in a nest chamber, generally not reused. They lay about four round white eggs in the chamber. Both parents incubate but are surprisingly inattentive to the eggs. The young are altricial and stay in the nest until they can fly. Both parents also care for the nestlings, much more attentively; they may feed each chick up to 140 times per day, the highest rate known among birds.

Todies eat small prey such as insects and lizards. Insects, particularly grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, bugs, butterflies, bees, wasps, and ants, form the greater part of the diet. Spiders and millipedes may also be taken, as is a small amount of fruit (2% of the diet).{{cite book | last = Kepler | first = A. K. | year = 2001 | chapter = Family Todidae (Todies) |title = Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 6, Mousebirds to Hornbills | editor = J. del Hoyo |editor2=A. Elliott |editor3=J. Sargatal | location = Barcelona | publisher = Lynx Edicions | isbn = 84-87334-30-X}} Todies typically sit on a low, small branch, singly or in pairs, keeping still or stepping or hopping sideways. When they see prey moving on the lower surface of a leaf, they fly a short distance (averaging 2.2 m in the broad-billed tody and 1.0 m in the Puerto Rican tody), diagonally upward to glean it. They may also take prey from the ground, occasionally chasing it with a few hops.

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{{Commons category|Todus}}

• [http://ibc.lynxeds.com/family/todies-todidae Tody videos] on the Internet Bird Collection

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Category:Birds of the Greater Antilles

Category:Birds of the Lesser Antilles

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Category:Bird genera