Crimson Sunbird
Aethopyga siparaja
A jewel of crimson and olive at the flowers.
Opens recordings on xeno-canto, the open bird-sound archive.
What the hills call it
Shakarkhora
/ sha·kar·kho·raa /शकरखोरा
Crimson Sunbird — A jewel of crimson and olive at the flowers.
Field notes
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Nectariniidae · Sunbirds
- Genus
- Aethopyga
- Length
- 11 cm
- Weight
- 5–8 g
- At Kunja
- Resident — here all year round
- Conservation
- Least Concern
How to know it
A tiny nectar-feeder; the breeding male blazes crimson over the head and breast with an olive belly, the female plain olive-yellow. A jewel at the flowers.
What it eats
Flower-nectar chiefly, sipped on the wing or from a perch, plus tiny insects and spiders.
Where & when to spot it
At flowering trees and shrubs along the forest edge, darting fast and bright among the blossom, often heard before seen.
Nesting & mating
The female weaves a hanging purse of fibre, moss and cobweb slung from a twig; two or three eggs.
In the lens
Crimson Sunbird, photographed at Ranikhet
Photographs by Manohar Negi · mnegi.com — tap any photo to view it full
More to spot
PasseridaeHouse Sparrow
Passer domesticus
Kunja
MuscicapidaeBlue Whistling Thrush
Myophonus caeruleus
Kunja
SturnidaeCommon Myna
Acridotheres tristis
Kunja
HirundinidaeRed-rumped Swallow
Cecropis daurica
Kunja
PycnonotidaeHimalayan Bulbul
Pycnonotus leucogenys
Kunja
MegalaimidaeGreat Barbet
Psilopogon virens
Kunja