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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 name Hedydipna comes from the Greek hēdudeipnos, meaning "dainty-supping" or "sweet-eating" — a reference to the nectar sipping habits of these species. [3] These sunbirds are largely restricted to Africa and western islands in the Indian Ocean, though the Nile Valley sunbird is found as far east as Yemen.
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 collared sunbird is a common breeder across most of sub-Saharan Africa. Two or three eggs are laid in a suspended nest in a tree. It is a seasonal bird migrant within its range. Collared sunbirds are tiny, only 9–10 cm (3.5–3.9 in) long. They have short thin down-curved bills and brush-tipped tubular tongues, both adaptations to nectar ...
The south Moluccan sunbird (Cinnyris clementiae) is a species of bird in the sunbird family Nectariniidae that found on some of the Maluku Islands, between Sulawesi and New Guinea in Indonesia. It was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the olive-backed sunbird, now renamed the garden sunbird ( Cinnyris jugularis ).
Cyanomitra is a genus of African sunbirds. Its members are sometimes included in Nectarinia. The sunbirds are a group of very small Old World passerine birds which feed largely on nectar, although they will also take insects, especially when feeding young. Flight is fast and direct on their short wings.
Mangrove sunbird: Anthreptes gabonicus: Senegal to northwestern Angola. Western violet-backed sunbird: Anthreptes longuemarei: sub-Saharan Africa Eastern violet-backed sunbird: Anthreptes orientalis: Djibouti in north to Tanzania Uluguru violet-backed sunbird: Anthreptes neglectus: eastern Kenya, eastern Tanzania, and north-eastern Mozambique ...
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.