SUNBIRD 10/11 - Copper-throated Sunbird

 

The Copper-throated Sunbird is found mainly in mangroves, but also coconut groves and coastal scrubland. I got mine in Pulau Indah Selangor after a tip off from JT. So the Ruby-cheeked Sunbird  will be my last to shoot; I tot I have  shot it before........hmmm.
           

Sunbirds eat insects but are best known for sipping on nectar. They have a typical long, slender, decurved bill with fine serration along the margins of both mandibles. Their tongue is tubular and deeply cleft.

Although it is said that they cannot hover like a hummingbird (which is found only in tropical Americas), the sunbird can hover briefly. But they do prefer to cling to a nearby stem or vegetation as they sip on nectar. They may "steal" the nectar by piercing through the base of the flower (thus avoiding payment of pollinating services in exchange for the nectar).

 

 

It has this rapid twitter similar to Crimson Sunbird but lower; also a long very high-pitched trill. Will show it in video. It has this darting & sallying flight.

 

Like other Sunbirds, the Copper-throated male is more colourful than the female. In fact, females of most species of Sunbirds look very similar.It is large for a sunbird (14cm), bill thin and obviously decurved; appears all black in poor light. In good light, the male  wears a green cap; copper throat and upper breast; dark purple lower breast and belly. Upperpart metallic green, tail blackish. In contrast the female looks like other sunbird females but has a greyish head. Upperparts dark olive; throat and under tail coverts greyish; breast and belly greenish yellow; tail black with bold white tips. Juvenile is like female but tail is brown.           The Copper-throated male has two bright yellow tufts on his sides (See pic3), best seen when his wings are open.

 

Males are particularly territorial and may defend a good feeding site from other Sunbirds. This I notice when another male approaches the flowering shrubs nearby the one that I was shooting was very vocal and chase the other away.

Sunbirds form monogamous pairs. The Copper-throated Sunbirds breed in April-August.

The female builds the nest, while the male escorts her as she finds and collects nesting materials. She uses fine twigs and leaves to construct a pear-shaped nest with an entrance hole at the top. The nest is usually built in a mangrove tree, 2-6 ft above the ground facing water (a pond or the sea). The eggs are pale brown with fine markings forming a band around the larger end. Both parents raise the young.