Olive-bellied Sunbird vs Souimanga Sunbird

Olive-bellied Sunbird

Cinnyris chloropygius

Tiny6 gShrubland

The olive-bellied sunbird is a small species, and very similar to the tiny sunbird (Cinnyris minullus) in appearance. The adult male has a metallic green head, back and throat, dark brown wings, a metallic blue rump and a black tail with a purplish-blue sheen. It has a narrow blue breast band above a wider scarlet breast patch, lemon-yellow pectoral tufts and an olive belly. It differs from the slightly smaller tiny sunbird in having a larger beak and no blue bars among the red breast plumage. The adult female has an olive-brown head and upper parts, dark brown wings and dark brown tail.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Robert Hoehndorf · CC BY 4.0

Souimanga Sunbird

Cinnyris sovimanga

Tiny7 gForest

The souimanga sunbird is 10 centimetres (3.9 in) long with a wingspan of 13 centimetres (5.1 in). The black bill is long, thin and curved. Males of the nominate subspecies have a metallic green head, back and throat. The breast is blackish with a more or less continuous red band while the belly is yellow and the wings and tail are brown. There are yellow tufts at the sides of the breast which become visible when the birds lift their wings in courtship display. Males presumably moult into a duller eclipse plumage by March–April, losing most of the metallic and red feathering for a few months.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Lisa_James · CC BY 4.0

Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Olive-bellied Sunbird and Souimanga Sunbird.