Common Name: Purple Sunbird
Scientific Name: Cinnyris asiaticus
Family: Nectariniidae
Nepali Name: Kalo Bungechara ( कालो बुङ्गेचरा )
Size: 10 cm
Location: Sauraha (Chitwan), Sitapaila (Kathmandu).
The Purple Sunbird is a tiny, jewel-bright visitor of gardens, scrub, and forest edges in Nepal, typically found in elevations between about 900 m and 2,135 m.
Breeding males gleam with an iridescent purple that can read almost black in dim light, while females are plain olive-brown above with yellow-tinted underparts. Equipped with a slim, down-curved bill and a brush-like tongue, these birds primarily sip nectar from flowers (usually from a perch rather than sustained hovering) and supplement their diet with insects, especially when feeding nestlings.
They weave neat, pouch-shaped nests often hidden in thorny bushes or attached to human structures; quick, vocal, and conspicuous, Purple Sunbirds are frequent pollinators of flowering trees across both wild and human-altered landscapes.
Please feel free to comment below if the above species has been misidentified.
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