Loten's Sunbird - BirdForum Opus

Male, subspecies hindustanicus
Photo © by Dr JP Menon
Manjolai, Western Ghats, South India, 8 August 2012

Alternative name: Long-billed Sunbird, however, that name has also been used for Malagasy Green Sunbird

Cinnyris lotenius

Nectarinia lotenia

Identification

12 cm (5-5¼ in)

Purple with a grey-brown belly
Long down-curved bills
Brush-tipped tubular tongue

Distribution

Female, subspecies lotenius
Photo © by arunp
Manipal, South India, 11 April 2010

Asia: found in India and Sri Lanka

Taxonomy

This is one of the many Sunbirds that have recently been moved to the genus Cinnyris from the genus Nectarinia.

Subspecies

Cinnyris lotenius has two subspecies^[1]:

C. l. hindustanicus:

Southern peninsula India (north to Bombay and Andhra Pradesh)

C. l. lotenius:

Sri Lanka

Habitat

Common in forests, cultivation and urban gardens

Behaviour

Diet

The diet consists mostly of insects, spiders and nectar.

Breeding

They construct a suspended pouch nest from lichen, rootlets, grass, moss, leaves, etc. The clutch contains 2-3 brownish-white eggs with dull brown spots at small end.

References

Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2019. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World: v2019. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
Avibase
Cheke, R. and C. Mann (2020). Loten's Sunbird (Cinnyris lotenius), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.lobsun2.01

List of references

Recommended Citation

BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Loten's Sunbird. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 9 October 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Loten%27s_Sunbird

External Links

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