frombirdtobond

The bananaquit is a precocious little songbird. Mostly yellow and black in color and never
any bigger than ten centimeters, this sugar-craving St. John resident is the only remaining
member of its family, the Coerebidae, which used to include the Honeycreepers. Much like
myself, he has a long, white supercilium. He has a curved bill for sucking nectar and frequently
makes a hole in the base of a flower to “steal” the food without pollinating the plant.

The Dutch call him a “suikerdiefje” or sugar thief. In Aruba they call him “chibichibi”, which is sort
of the noise he makes. Many a birdwatcher has spent a happy hour observing these already
nervous birds get insanely jacked-up on a heap of white sugar. What fun!

The bananaquit can be found from Mexico, all through the Caribbean, down to southern Brazil
and into Argentina. A thorough description can be found in A Field Guide to the Birds of the West
Indies, published by Houghton Mifflin. Many of us own a copy of this colorful and informative
reference book. The author was Curator of Birds at the Academy of Sciences in Philadelphia, a
man named Bond, James Bond. James Bond began his research on West Indian birds in the
1920’s and was, in fact, the namesake of the fictional spy of that name.

After World War II, British Intelligence officer and novelist, Ian Fleming moved to Jamaica and
built an estate, on the north shore, that he named Goldeneye. On the third Tuesday of January,
1952, while enjoying a breakfast of scones and jam, Fleming flipped through his own copy of A
Field Guide to read about the tiny golden birds flitting at his table. Intrigued, he read about the
bananaquit. As a tribute to the Guide’s author, or perhaps out of a lack of inspiration, he
“borrowed” the man’s name for the main character of a book he had just completed, Casino
Royale.

The ornithologist and his wife visited Jamaica in the early 60’s and invited themselves to lunch at
Goldeneye. Not in the least offended by Fleming’s use of his name for the superspy, Bond found
it quite amusing.

In the film Die Another Day, Pierce Brosnon, as Bond, arrives in Cuba to meet his contact,
undercover as a bird expert. In that scene, he picks up a copy of A Field Guide, a pair of
binoculars and takes off in a fast car.

Casino Royale was the first of the James Bond series. A new movie version is out in theaters
now, starring a fellow who is nothing like Sean Connery. He looks like a young Vladimir Putin and
professes to care less whether his martini is stirred or shaken. A supercilium, by the way, is a
shock of white head plumage.

- Jeff Smith