Mellisuga minima
Silhouette: Steven Traver · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The vervain hummingbird (Mellisuga minima) is a species of hummingbird in tribe Mellisugini of subfamily Trochilinae, the "bee hummingbirds". It is found on Hispaniola (split between the Dominican Republic and Haiti) and Jamaica.
The vervain hummingbird was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Trochilus minimus. Linnaeus based his description on a bird that had been described and illustrated in 1747 by the English naturalist George Edwards. The type locality is Jamaica. The vervain hummingbird is now placed together with the tiny Cuban bee hummingbird in the genus Mellisuga that was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760.
The vervain hummingbird is perhaps the second-smallest bird in the world after the smallest, the bee hummingbird, though some other tiny ones are close to it in size. It is about 6 cm (2.4 in) long, including the 1 cm (0.39 in) bill, and weighs about 2 to 2.4 g (0... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park | 🇯🇲 Jamaica | |
| 2 | Los Haitises National Park | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic | |
| 3 | Jaragua National Park | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santo Domingo | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Vervain Hummingbird sighting in Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park on a given day, based on 472 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 30th most-seen of the 91 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February–April and August
In those months about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Vervain Hummingbird in Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park on a given day, against about 30% in May, July and November, the lowest months. June has too few records to rate.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Vervain Hummingbird sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 3 parks where we can rate Vervain Hummingbird sightings, Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park has the highest daily chance: about 40%. Next come Los Haitises National Park (Dominican Republic, about 30%) and Jaragua National Park (Dominican Republic, about 20%).
Same family: Trochilidae
The closest relatives of the Vervain Hummingbird that you can see in Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park (family Trochilidae, Hummingbirds) are Streamertail (about 60%), Streamertail (Black-billed) (about 40%) and Jamaican Mango (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Vervain Hummingbird is recorded against all the birds logged in Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park (472 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
