Purple Sunbird
Cinnyris asiaticus
The male gleams metallic purple-black in the sun.
Opens recordings on xeno-canto, the open bird-sound archive.
What the hills call it
Shakarkhora
/ sha·kar·kho·raa /शकरखोरा
Purple Sunbird — The male gleams metallic purple-black in the sun.
Field notes
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Nectariniidae · Sunbirds
- Genus
- Cinnyris
- Length
- 10 cm
- Weight
- 6–10 g
- At Kunja
- Resident — here all year round
- Conservation
- Least Concern
How to know it
A tiny nectar-feeder; the breeding male gleams metallic purple-black all over, the female and non-breeding male olive above and yellow below.
What it eats
Flower-nectar mainly, with small insects and spiders; an important pollinator of garden and wild flowers.
Where & when to spot it
At flowering shrubs and trees in gardens and scrub, fast and restless among the blossom, with a sharp, lively call.
Nesting & mating
The female builds a hanging purse of fibre and cobweb slung from a twig; two or three eggs.
In the lens
Purple Sunbird, photographed at Haldwani
Photographs by Manohar Negi · mnegi.com — tap any photo to view it full
More to spot
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HirundinidaeRed-rumped Swallow
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PycnonotidaeHimalayan Bulbul
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