Even territories of the United States claim their own unique animal and plant life indigenous to the area. From http://www.gov.vi I learned that the territory flower for the US Virgin Islands is the Yellow Elder or Yellow Cedar (Tacoma stans). In 1934 this prodigious flower was named the official flower of the US Virgin Islands. The sunny yellow flower blooms throughout the year and is a common sight in the islands.
The territory bird is the Yellow Breast (coreba flaveola). The Virgin Islands Legislature named it as the official bird of the territory in 1970. The Yellow Breast is also known as the "Banana Quit" due to its incredible yellow plumage. This friendly bird loves sugar and also has earned another alias, "Sugar Bird".
The metabolism of these yellow-feathered creatures must be extremely high. To attract the birds to your home, all have to do is simply set out sugar in pans or bird feeders. It takes awhile for them to become comfortable, as is the nature of birds. But when they begin to visit regularly, the bird network will crackle throughout the neighborhood and before you know it, you have hoards of yellow birds flocking to your feeders.
After hurricane Georges, much of the foliage was blown off the trees and bushes. As this is the primary source of food for the yellow birds, they began to rely more on their sugar treats. I will never forget the sound of literally hundreds of birds chirping in the trees, angrily waiting their turn at the sugar bowls. I felt sorry for them, with their feathers all ruffled and literally no natural source of food. I began to put out more bowls of sugar on my deck and before too long, it seemed as if the entire island's population was in my front yard. They went through two five pounds of sugars in three days!
Another bird that's easy to attract is the hummingbird. These gorgeous creatures are even more colorful and spectacular than those in the states. The feeding method is the same; red colored sugar-water in hummingbird feeders. These birds are clothed with brilliant emerald green feathers that shimmer in the sunlight. They are considerably bigger than the hummingbirds in the states, about one-third larger.
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