Step Aside, Eagles: These Currencies Feature Songbirds

Why Are Birds on Currency?

The most common images on currency include royal figures, national leaders, coats of arms, and significant buildings or public works. Placing songbirds and hummingbirds on currency shows a different side to the country, symbolizing national pride, biodiversity, and conservation. There’s another reason–birds are neutral politically and visually distinct. They connect current societies to cultural folklore and represent freedom while reminding people of their natural heritage.

Birds on the Singapore Dollar

This wealthy nation-state had a special bird series of banknotes in the last century that featured a variety of local birds on the front of each denomination, including the Red-whiskered Bulbul and Collared Kingfisher, which is known for its loud, metallic calls but is technically not a songbird.

Birds on Canadian Dollars

Canada issued a series of bird-themed banknotes beginning in the 1980s. For example, the $2 note showed American Robins, and other larger bills featured Pine Grosbeaks. While not a songbird, the Common Loon appears on Canadian dollar coins, which are nicknamed “loonies.”

Birds on U.S. Currency

In the U.S., the Oklahoma state quarter has an image of the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, which is that state’s bird and is common in the southern Midwest.

Birds on New Zealand Currency

New Zealand might have some of the most interesting bird life on the planet, and that’s reflected in many aspects of society–in fact, a common nickname for people from New Zealand is “kiwi”—a reference to the nation’s unique, flightless, and endangered native bird, known for its shaggy brown feathers, long beak with nostrils at the top, and nighttime habits. New Zealand notes feature the Kokako on the $50 bill and Yellowhead on the $100 bill, both of which are true songbirds.

Birds on Guatemalan Currency

The small Central American country of Guatemala might win this contest–their currency doesn’t just feature songbirds, it’s named after one: the Quetzal. The Quetzal is a highly colorful bird with complex plumage that lives in regional cloud forests–a cloud forest being a tropical forest where it’s almost always cloudy, misty, and cool. The Quetzal migrates seasonally within the same area–higher elevations when it’s warm and lower elevations when it’s cool. The male Resplendent Quetzal has an iridescent green tail plume that measures up to three feet long and creates a stunning display during courtship as it ripples behind them in flight.

Birds on Netherlands Antilles Currency

The Netherlands Antilles was a Caribbean island group which had autonomous status within the Netherlands. The state’s currency was the guilder (later replaced by the Caribbean guilder). The 10-guilder note had a hummingbird, the 50-guilder note had a Rufous-collared Sparrow, and the 100-guilder note had the Bananaquit–so named in part for its penchant for sugary foods.  

Many other countries feature small songbirds on their coins including:

• Trinidad & Tobago: Copper-rumped Hummingbird on the 1 cent coin

• South Africa: Cape Sparrow on the 1 cent coin

• Cayman Islands: Cayman Thrush on the penny

Hummingbirds on Costa Rican Currency

The Costa Rican 20,000 colones banknote features the Volcano Hummingbird, known locally as the Chispita. The Volcano Hummingbird is an intensely beautiful bird found in open terrain at high elevations in Central America. This bird’s short bill restricts which flowers it can feed from.

Hummingbirds on Bolivian Currency

Bolivia’s landscape ranges from heavily glaciated peaks to Amazonian rainforest–meaning that it’s only natural that the birdlife here is extraordinary. That diversity was honored on the 10 boliviano banknote, which features a color image and stylized image of Picaflor Gigante–the largest hummingbird in the world. These birds are found in the high Andes and can weigh up to an ounce and be 9 inches long.

Hummingbirds on Peruvian Currency

This might be the most artistically and historically interesting bird-on-a-currency story in the world. Several Peruvian coins feature a representation of a hummingbird, and the imagery is so striking that many of the coins are converted into jewelry. The representation, however, is not a direct image of a bird–it’s an image found in Peru’s Nazca lines. The Nazca lines are depressions carved into the Nazca Desert in southern Peru, created between 500 BC and 500 AD. Many of these lines are figurative depictions of plants and animals and can only be seen in whole from the air, and some appear to point toward solstice sun positions. The Nazca hummingbird is a detailed geometric figure that is nearly 100 yards long and might have symbolized fertility and agriculture, or been a form of communication with a deity. The geoglyph appears on the 2 soles coin.

Hummingbirds on English Currency

As many know, hummingbirds are only found in North and South America. So why does the English 10 pound note have a depiction of one? The answer is Charles Darwin, who pioneered the concept of evolution by natural selection and who was born in Shrewsbury, England, in 1809, and how exactly the bird wound up on the currency is a bit of a strange tale.

Darwin studied at Cambridge and then sailed aboard the HMS Beagle to South America and, in particular, the Galapagos Islands, where he made many of the observations that formed the basis of his most popular works–that species evolve, natural selection drives evolution, all life shares common ancestry, and adaptations arise gradually through small inherited variations.

So why the hummingbird, then? True, there are hummingbirds in Galapagos–namely the Galapagos Woodstar. But Darwin didn’t study them–his main bird focus was finches. So why did the English get a bird on their money that isn’t found in there and wasn’t studied by the guy posed next to it? The short answer is symbolism, not history. The 10 pound note celebrates Darwin’s ideas, not a specific experiment, and the hummingbird represents biodiversity, adaptation, and natural beauty–all of which are core themes to evolution. And as we’ve seen elsewhere–to wit, the pyramid found on the U.S. dollar–currency design often prioritizes artistic impact and broad meaning over any sort of precision. In the case of the 10-pound note, the hummingbird doesn’t say “this is what Darwin studied,” it says, “this is what Darwin helped explain.”

Hummingbirds on Currency from Brazil and Suriname

While hummingbirds are well-known visitors to tropical nations like Costa Rica, they are also migrants to lesser-known South American nations such as Suriname and Brazil. Suriname, which sits on the Caribbean and has protected a significant amount of its territory in nature reserves, is home to the Tafelberg Brilliant and White-tailed Goldenthroat. Brazil, meanwhile, is a hummingbird hotspot, and hosts more than 80 species, including the Black Jacobin and Violet-capped Woodnymph.

In Brazil, the Blue-chested Hummingbird was featured on 100 reais notes in the 1990s, and the 1 real note later. The Black-throated Mango found a spot on the 10 gulden note in Suriname, while the Long-tailed Hermit made it onto the 100 gulden note. 

Hummingbirds on Currency From Aruba

The desert island of Aruba hosts two main hummingbird species: the Blue-tailed Emerald and the Ruby-topaz. The Ruby-topaz is shown in monocolor Aruba’s 200 florin note (where you can also find a Crested Caracara, a raptor frequently seen on the island as well).

Checklist: Spot the Songbirds and Hummingbirds Featured on Global Currency

If you’ve got a FeatherSnap smart bird feeder or Feathersnap smart hummingbird feeder, you’re all set to start spotting these money birds. Both feeders feature smart notifications that alert you when there’s a bird at your feeder, and have optional AI-enabled bird ID so you can tell exactly which bird you’re seeing. Ready for a treasure hunt of your own? Use this checklist to spot songbirds and hummingbirds found on currency around the world.