Loten's Sunbird

Loten's sunbird, also called the long-billed or maroon-breasted sunbird, is a small sunbird 12–13cm long, very like the purple sunbird but with a longer, more curved bill and browner wings. The adult male is mainly glossy purple with a grey-brown belly and a maroon breast band that shows in good light, and has yellow and crimson display tufts at the sides of the breast. The female is yellow-grey above and yellowish below, without the purple sunbird's faint eyebrow. Bill length varies between populations (Wikipedia, general species account).

It hovers at flowers for nectar, also eats insects and builds a hanging nest. It is very active, often bobbing its head while foraging, and has a distinctive buzzy zwick call; the male sings a long, repeated wue-wue-wue that speeds up at the end, often from a bare treetop. It is named after Joan Gideon Loten, a Dutch governor of Ceylon. SoIB 2023 treats it as endemic to the Indian subcontinent and resident with a large range, finds a current increase of about 5% a year, and rates it a Low conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).