Greater double-collared sunbird
| Greater double-collared sunbird | |
|---|---|
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| Male, Greyton, Western Cape | |
Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Nectariniidae |
| Genus: | Cinnyris |
| Species: | C. afer
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| Binomial name | |
| Cinnyris afer (Linnaeus, 1766)
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| Synonyms | |
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The greater double-collared sunbird (Cinnyris afer) (formerly placed in the genus Nectarinia), is a small bird in the sunbird family.
Distribution and habitat[]
The sunbird breeds in southern South Africa. It is mainly resident, but partly migratory in the northeast of its range. It is common in gardens, fynbos, forest edges and coastal scrub.
Description[]
The sunbird is 14 cm long. The adult male has a glossy, metallic green head, throat upper breast and back. It has a broad brilliant red band across the chest, separated from the green breast by a narrow metallic blue band. The rest of the underparts are pale grey. When displaying, yellow feather tufts can be seen on the shoulders. As with other sunbirds the bill is long and decurved. The bill, legs and feet are black. The eye is dark brown. The male can be distinguished from the similar lesser double-collared sunbird by the latter's smaller size, narrower red chest band and shorter bill. The call is a hard chut-chut-chut, and the song is a high pitched jumble of tweets and twitters, richer than the calls of the lesser double-collared sunbird.
Behaviour[]
The sunbird is usually seen singly or in pairs. Its flight is fast and direct on short wings.
Breeding[]
The sunbird breeds all year round, with a peak from July to November. The closed oval nest is constructed from grass, lichen and other plant material, bound together with spider webs. It has a side entrance which sometimes has a porch, and is lined with feathers.
Feeding[]
It lives mainly on nectar from flowers, but takes some fruit, and, especially when feeding young, insects and spiders. It has the habit of hovering in front of webs to extract spiders. It can hover like a hummingbird to take nectar, but usually perches to do so.
Call[]
The Greater Double-Collared Sunbird makes a shrill whistle and click: Wrew wrew wrew ch ch.
References[]
- Sinclair, Hockey and Tarboton, SASOL Birds of Southern Africa, ISBN 1-86872-721-1
External links[]
- Greater double-collared sunbird - Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds.
- SASOL e-guide
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cinnyris afer. |
- IUCN Red List least concern species
- Cinnyris
- Birds of Southern Africa
- Birds described in 1766
- Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus