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Sunbird drinking nectar from typical bird-pollinated flower. As nectar is a primary food source for sunbirds, they are important pollinators in African ecosystems. Sunbird-pollinated flowers are typically long, tubular, and red-to-orange in colour, showing convergent evolution with many hummingbird-pollinated flowers in the Americas. [10]
They eat nectar from different flowering plants. They also eat small insects and fruits, which give them the protein and nutrients they need. [2] In Africa, sunbirds are the dominant pollinator. [5] This dual diet of nectar and insects means they play a significant role in pollination and controlling insect populations.
The garden sunbird (under the name olive-backed sunbird) formerly included 21 subspecies and had a range that extended from Southeast Asia to Australia. Based on the difference in the male plumage and a genetic study comparing mitochondrial DNA sequences of some of the subspecies, the olive-backed sunbird was split into eight species.
While feeding they flick their wings. [13] They rarely hover at flowers and usually perch to forage for nectar. They are important pollinators of some plant species such as Butea monosperma, [14] Acacia, [15] Woodfordia [16] [17] and Dendrophthoe. [18] but they sometimes steal nectar by slitting flowers such as Hamelia patens at the base. [19]
Sunbirds are generally small birds with long, thin, down-curved bills and brightly coloured, iridescent plumages. [2] They display marked sexual dimorphism, and males are much more visually striking than females, who are usually dull green, brown, or grey. The spiderhunters (Arachnothera) are larger than other sunbirds and show less sexual ...
The purple-rumped sunbird (Leptocoma zeylonica) is a sunbird endemic to the Indian Subcontinent. Like other sunbirds, they are small in size, feeding mainly on nectar but sometimes take insects, particularly when feeding young. They can hover for short durations but usually perch to lap nectar from flowers.
The orange-breasted sunbird (Anthobaphes violacea) is a species of small, predominantly nectar-feeding bird that is endemic to the fynbos shrubland biome of southwestern South Africa. It is the only member of the genus Anthobaphes , in the family Nectariniidae (the sunbirds and spiderhunters ), though it is sometimes placed in the genus ...
Golden-winged sunbirds consume the nectar from flowers of the mint Leonotis nepetifolia flowers as their main food source, but they also feed infrequently on other flower species: [4] Aloe graminicola and Leonotis mollissima during the breeding season, [5] and also Crotalaria species including C. agatiflora, Erythrina abyssinica, Fuchsia ...