Todus multicolor
Cuban Tody
- Order: Coraciiformes
- Family: Todidae
- Monotypic
Distribution
The Americas
Widespread on Cuba, both on the mainland and on larger islands off the northern coast (Raffaele et al. 1998, Garrido and Kirkconnell 2000, Kepler 2001). Also on the Isle of Pines.
Outside the Americas
No records.
Habitat
Highly adaptable (Forshaw 1997, Raffaele et al. 1998, Kepler 2001). Occurs in wooded and semi-wooded areas, thickets, xeric regions, riparian zones, wet and dry forests, gallery forest, pine plantations, secondary vegetation and plantations, at all elevations, particularly associated with areas with clay embankments. Also inhabits shoreline vegetation.
Historical changes
No information.
Fossil history
Todies are a sister group to the kingfishers (Moyle 2006) and are presumably of northern historical origins, becoming extinct in the Old World with a current, "relictual" distribution (Feduccia 1977). Palaeotodus is known from central European fossils dating to the early Oligocene, suggesting the family may have been substantially more widespread than it is presently (Mayr and Knopf 2007, Olson 1976). Overton et al. (2004) found that the genus Todus is monophyletic and closer to the genera Hylomanes and Baryphthengus (Momotidae) than to the genera Chloroceryle and Ceryle (Alcedinidae). The mitochondrial-gene trees and nuclear-gene trees both show similar results, thus providing support for the relationships among the taxa.
Recommended Citation
Farnsworth, Andrew. 2009. Cuban Tody (Todus multicolor), Neotropical Birds Online (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; retrieved from Neotropical Birds Online: http://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/portal/species/overview?p_p_spp=26366
