Birds Without Borders: Purple sunbird, a shiny-black home visitor

The female is usually dull in colour, with the upper body olive brown and the lower body yellowish. The non-breeding male also looks similar to the female but it has a black stripe running from the throat to the lower belly.

Purple sunbird has a long curvy bill that can tenderly slide inside the flower to reach the nectary. Once the bill reaches the nectary, it extends its tongue, which is hollow and cylindrical. Using its tongue, the purple sunbird creates a vacuum to make way for nectar to reach its throat from the flower. Then, it sucks the nectar. Witnessing it gently sucking the nectar without breaking or affecting the flower is so calming. They also have abilities to hover and suck nectar like hummingbirds.

Moreover, they can fly backwards. They are smart to reach to the nectary by hovering or getting inside the flower or making a hole at the base of the flower. Other than their prime food, nectar, they are also noted to eat insects.

The female mainly builds purple sunbird’s nest. She uses cobwebs to hold the nest material together rather than weaving it. Materials such as vegetation, lichens, bark, insect cocoons etc. are used to build a hanging nest. They build nests hanging on wires, thorny shrubs, branches, etc.

It roughly takes a week to complete the nest that turns out like a pouch. The female sits inside the pouch shape and keeps her bill a little out through the entrance hole. Often the entrance has a shelter type of extended portion above. The female usually lays two eggs and incubates them by herself. She even does most of the feeding of the chicks by herself. The male assists in feeding chicks.

Purple sunbirds are very talkative birds. They constantly make chip, chweet, chwing, zik, sweep, etc. sounds. They are very active birds, too, jumping from flower to flower and plant to plant. Males and females keep chasing each other and often blowing whistles. They don’t roam around in a group. Gardens, agricultural lands, towns and human habitations, open areas with some trees, and semi-dry areas are their various habitats. Their favourite plants are the oleanders and the crown flower plants.

Purple sunbirds are spread all over India and are common residents in Gujarat. They breed almost throughout the year. Their population is stable. On the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list of threatened species, the purple sunbird is categorised as a species of least concern from the conservation point of view.

Next time you take a morning walk and see a beauty sparkling in the sunlight, you will surely think of the purple sunbird.

(Dr Jayendra M Bhalodiya is an assistant professor at Ahmedabad University. He is affiliated with Bird Conservation Society, Gujarat and Eco Friends Gujarat.)