Aethopyga siparaja (Crimson sunbird)
Aethopyga siparaja-Crimson sunbird (click to enlarge)
| Common name | Crismson Sunbird |
| Scientific name | Aethopyga siparaja |
| Family | Nectariniini |
| Description | A brilliantly coloured glistening purple, green and crimson sunbird with long, pointed, metallic green tail and a distinctive yellow rump. Female short-tailed as in the Purple species, but duky olive-green above, dull ashy green below. Pairs in well-wooded country. It flits about restlessly like a gem in the sunshine among blossoming shrubs and trees, hanging upside down and in other acrobatic positions to probe into the flower rubes for nectar. Also eats insects and spiders. It is found over the greater part of the Indian Union, in moist-deciduous and evergreen forest biotopes, up to between 1500 and 2500m elevation in the Himalayas. |