Black-billed Streamertail

The male black-billed streamertail is 22 to 24 cm (8.7 to 9.4 in) long including the 10 to 13 cm (3.9 to 5.1 in) tail streamers and weighs 4.0 to 5.8 g (0.14 to 0.20 oz). The female is about 10.5 cm (4.1 in) long and weighs 3.5 to 5.5 g (0.12 to 0.19 oz). Both sexes have a black bill. The male has a dull black to blue-black crown; it and the nape form a deep velvety black crest. The rest of its upperparts are bright grass green. Its tail is black with a green to bronzy green gloss. The next to outermost pair of tail feathers is very long, giving the species its English name. The male's face and most of its underparts are metallic green; the undertail coverts are blue-black or black with a bluish gloss. The adult female's upperparts are metallic bronze green to greenish bronze that is duller on the crown. Its tail lacks the male's streamers. Its central pair of feathers are bright bronze green and the rest black with some bronze green gloss, and the outermost two pairs have wide white tips. Its underparts are white with metallic bronze green spots on the breast and flanks. Immature males are similar to the adult but lack the tail streamers; its tail feathers have bronze green tips.

The black-billed streamertail is found in far eastern Jamaica; its range slightly overlaps that of the red-billed which is found throughout the rest of the island. It inhabits evergreen montane forest, lowland tropical forest, and secondary forest. It shuns mangroves and arid highlands. In elevation it ranges from sea level to 1,500 m (4,900 ft); it is considered fairly common in the lowlands and common at middle and higher elevations.

The black-billed streamertail forages for nectar at a wide variety of native and introduced flowering species; it especially prefers Besleria lutea. It forages at all heights from the ground to the canopy. It has also been observed "robbing" nectar from holes in flowers created by bananaquits (Coereba flaveola) and visiting wells drilled by yellow-bellied sapsuckers (Sphyrapicus varius). In addition to nectar, it feeds on small insects taken while hovering or gleaned from foliage or spiderweb.