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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 ]
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.
The purple sunbird (Cinnyris asiaticus) is a small bird in the sunbird family. It occurs in parts of the Arabian peninsula and South and Southeast Asia. It has a fast and direct flight and can take nectar by hovering like a hummingbird but often perches at the base of flowers. It feeds mainly on nectar and insects, especially when feeding young.
Clockwise from top left: ruby-cheeked sunbird, collared sunbird, Loten's sunbird, little spiderhunter, fire-tailed sunbird, and malachite sunbird. Nectariniidae is a family of passerine birds in the superfamily Passeroidea, comprising the sunbirds and spiderhunters. [1] Members of Nectariniidae are also known as nectariniids. [2]
The ornate sunbird (Cinnyris ornatus) is a species of bird in the sunbird family Nectariniidae that is endemic to Mainland Southeast Asia, Sumatra, Java, Borneo and the Lesser Sunda Islands. It was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the olive-backed sunbird, now renamed the garden sunbird ( Cinnyris jugularis ).
The Sahul sunbird (Cinnyris frenatus) is a species of bird in the sunbird family Nectariniidae that is endemic to Sulawesi eastwards to New Guinea and the Soloman Islands. It is also found in northeast Australia. It was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the olive-backed sunbird, now renamed the garden sunbird (Cinnyris jugularis).
The nest is dome-shaped and has an entrance hole on the side. It is made of plant material such as grass stems, coconut fibre and leaves. It is usually suspended from a branch about 1 to 2 metres (3 ft 3 in to 6 ft 7 in) above the ground but may be built on a building or in a sinkhole within eroded coral .
Loten's sunbird (Cinnyris lotenius), also known as the long-billed sunbird or maroon-breasted sunbird, is a sunbird endemic to peninsular India and Sri Lanka. Named after Joan Gideon Loten, who was the Dutch governor of colonial Ceylon, it is very similar to the purple sunbird that is found in the same areas and also tends to hover at flowers for nectar, but can be distinguished by the longer ...