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The Broad-billed Tody comes from a small family of Caribbean birds, Todidae, of the order Coraciiformes. Adjacent to Jamaica, Cuba and Puerto Rico is the island of Hispaniola of which the Broad-billed Tody occupies the lowlands. Todies range in weight from 5 to 7 g and in length from 10 to 11.5 cm (4 to 4.5 inches). They have colourful plumage and resemble kingfishers, with green heads, backs and wings, red throats with a white and blue-grey stripe on each side, and yellow undertail coverts. The irises are pale grey. They have long, flattened bills with serrated edges; the upper mandible is black, the lower red with a little black. The Broad-billed Todies are highly vocal; they give simple, unmusical buzzing notes and beeps puffing their throats out with every call. They eat small prey such as insects and lizards. Insects form the greater part of the diet, particularly grasshoppers and crickets, beetles, bugs, butterflies, bees, wasps and ants. Todies typically sit on a low small twig, singly or in pairs, keeping still or possibly stepping sideways like parrots or hopping sideways. When they see prey moving on the lower surface of a leaf, they fly a short distance averaging about 7 feet. They may also take prey from the ground, occasionally chasing it with a few hops. At all times they are sedentary; the longest single flight known for the Broad-billed Tody is 40 metres (130 feet). Nests are built in tunnels, which are dug by their beaks and feet in rotten tree trunks. The tunnel is 30 to 60 cm long and ends in a nest chamber, generally not reused. They lay about four round white eggs in the chamber. Both parents may feed each chick up to 140 times per day, the highest rate known among birds.
