Purple Sunbird

Purple sunbird introduction

Purple sunbird is a small species of sunbird. It has a slender curved bill and a tubular tongue which is well adopted for feeding the nectar of flower.

How to identify purple sunbird

The male purple sunbird has two different types of feather. The male which is capable of breeding has metalic bluish black body. Lower part is of crimson colour and yellow feather under the wings.

Male has dark and short square ended tail with distinctive sexual dimorphism. And the non breeding make purple sunbird has the plumage like female; underparts is yellow and a dark line running down the centre of the throat and the breast.
The female purple sunbird is greenish brown. Its underpart is bright yellow. Colour of the tail is dark brown and outer feather of the tail has white tips. There is a pale upper cillum beyond the eye and there is a darkish eye stripe.
Size of the purple sunbird is between 9 cm. to 12cm. The breeding season is from February to June. Sunbird makes a typical type of nest. It is like a oblong pouch which is made of grasses, rubbish, with pieces of bark. Entrance is near the tip.

Habit and habitat

They are mainly found on the plain. But also seen hoto 1800 in the Himalayas. They are also found in gardens, cultivated lands and in forests.
Their main food is flower nectar, small insects. Their flight is very fast. While drinking the nectar, sometimes they hover like humming bird. But mainly perch at the base of the flower.
They are very noisy. The call of purple sunbird is is three notes of ' chewit' and sometimes sharp ' wich - wich '.
During courtship, the male raise his head , fan his tail and flutter with partly open wings to expose his pectoral tufts while singing to the female.
Female lays 2 to 3 eggs which is grayish or greenish in colour with white marks. It takes 14 to 18 days the eggs to be hatched. Though the female only hatch the eggs , the chicks are raised by both the parents.

Scientific Name : Cinnyris asiaticus.

Photo : By Dr. Supriya Mondal
Prof. Jadavpur University

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