Crimson Sunbird

The crimson sunbird is a tiny sunbird, only 11 cm long, which feeds largely on nectar and may also take insects, especially when feeding its young. Like other sunbirds it has a medium-length thin down-curved bill and a brush-tipped tubular tongue. The adult male has a crimson breast and maroon back with black malar stripes, a yellow rump and an olive belly, while the female has an olive-green back, a yellowish breast and white tips to the outer tail feathers. In most of the range males have a long green-blue tail, but A. s. nicobarica of the Nicobar Islands and the former subspecies A. vigorsii of the Western Ghats lack the long central tail feathers (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is a resident breeder in tropical southern Asia from India, through Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar to Indonesia and Brunei. Most species of the group can take nectar by hovering like a hummingbird but usually perch to feed, and the call is chee-cheewee. Two or three eggs are laid in a suspended nest in a tree. SoIB 2023 rates it a Low conservation priority, a resident of non-specialised habitat and an omnivore, with a Large range of about 274,000 km² and a stable long-term trend (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).