Sunbirds

Everyone knows about hummingbirds. These colourful creatures hover while drinking nectar from a flower with their long beak. Photographers love these birds and have developed elaborate techniques, often involving several flashes, to catch them drinking from feeders. A skilled photographer can make stunning images from such a setup.

Hummingbirds can only be found in the Americas. In countries like Costa Rica they draw a substantial number of avian tourists. But for the rest of us there is something just as beautiful. They are sunbirds - called moutushi in Bangla - found in Asia, Africa and Australia.

Sunbirds are small birds with a long curved beak for inserting into a flower to extract its nectar. In the process they also pollinate the flowers. Male sunbirds are colourful but females are drab brown or grey. In Bangladesh we have five varieties of sunbirds. The most common are purple, purple-rumped and crimson sunbirds. The others - purple-throated and ruby-cheeked varieties - are harder to find.

Sunbirds are fidgety birds. They rarely stay still for more than one or two seconds. During the mating season, however, I have noticed the male sometimes stays still because it is important for it to be conspicuous to attract a female.  So it perches in an open place and displays its breeding plumage. The purple sunbird, which normally has iridescent blue colours, grows a yellow-orange splash of feathers on the side during breeding. It looks spectacular.

Where can you find them? Purple sunbirds (and to some extent purple-rumped sunbirds) can be found all over, including the middle of the city, as long as there are flowers around. But the other sunbirds are found in forested areas. In the National Botanical Garden in Mirpur, I have often seen sunbirds in the dhaira vines you encounter after entering the inner gate. But I have also seen them in my neighour's house in Baridhara, flitting from flower to flower. In the fields of Purbachol, I photographed sunbirds around flowers of sajna trees growing in village homesteads.

I have seen crimson sunbirds and ruby-cheeked sunbirds only in the protected forests such as Satchori, Kalenga or Sundarban. They are likely to be found around orchids or smaller flowers.

The anatomy of sunbirds is uniquely designed for drinking nectar. Inside their long decurved bill is a thin tongue which curls around to form a tube. The nectar is then extracted by capillary action. Their light weight and small but strong feet enable them to perch near flowers. If necessary, their wings allow them to hover near flowers while drinking nectar.

Outside Bangladesh I have seen sunbirds in Africa and Madagascar. They are also found in most of south and southeast Asia as well as parts of Australia. Worldwide there are 132 species of sunbirds (as compared to over 300 species of hummingbirds.)

Sunbirds belong to the bird family nectariniidae. This family also includes the spiderhunter which possesses a remarkably long beak to pick prey stuck in spiderwebs.

The next time you are near flowering trees, keep an eye out for these beautiful birds.

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