The bronzy sunbird (''Nectarinia kilimensis'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

in the family

Nectariniidae Sunbirds and spiderhunters make up the family Nectariniidae of passerine birds. They are small, slender passerines from the Old World, usually with downward-curved bills. Many are brightly coloured, often with iridescent feathers, particularly i ...

. They are located mostly in parts of southern Africa.

Description

Bronzy sunbirds have a long, thin, well-curved bill. Males have bronze-and-green undertones but most often look black in light. While the male has the undertones, the female however has a pale eyebrow and an added yellowish park below the belly with fine streaking. On some subspecies specifically located in Angola there is a splash of odd green, but it does not overlap in range with

malachite Malachite is a copper carbonate hydroxide mineral, with the formula Cu2CO3(OH)2. This opaque, green-banded mineral crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, and most often forms botryoidal, fibrous, or stalagmitic masses, in fractures ...

or scarlet-tufted sunbirds in similar areas which do not have this green streaking. Male sunbirds lack any purple tones to the plumage which is found on female species.

Vocalizations

Bronzy sunbirds use a jumble of twittering notes followed by cleaner whistle sounds. These sounds are most often heard during the early morning and mid day.

Distribution and habitat

The bronzy sunbird can be found in Africa. While not very common they can be best found near the edges of the

Afromontane forest The Afromontane regions are subregions of the Afrotropical realm, one of the Earth's eight biogeographic realms, covering the plant and animal species found in the mountains of Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula. The Afromontane regions ...

, mountain sides and Zimbabwe's eastern highlands and adjacent next to Mozambique. Other countries they can be found include Angola, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. They stay far away from populated areas in these countries and have adapted to most remote environments. These environments include Savannas, dried shrub-land, grass, seasonally flooded areas, and rural gardens. They are most abundant in subtropical forests and brush-land.

Behavior

Diet

The diet of the bronzy sunbird is very specific limited to

Nectar Nectar is a sugar-rich liquid produced by plants in glands called nectaries or nectarines, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to animal mutualists ...

Spiders Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species dive ...

and

Insects Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of j ...

. The insects that they consume include

Ants Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of 22,00 ...

Coleoptera Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

(beetles),

Hemiptera Hemiptera (; ) is an order (biology), order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising over 80,000 species within groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, Reduviidae, assassin bugs, Cimex, bed bugs, and shield bugs. ...

(bugs),

Hymenoptera Hymenoptera is a large order (biology), order of insects, comprising the sawfly, sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones. Many of the species are Par ...

(wasps, bees and ants),

Diptera Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced ...

(flies), and

termites Termites are small insects that live in colonies and have distinct castes (eusocial) and feed on wood or other dead plant matter. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blattode ...

Breeding

During the breeding process the male role is very limited. After conception the male often leaves. The female assumes most of the responsibility and lays its eggs anytime from September to May but the peak of egg laying is between the months of October to December. They often lay 1 to 2 eggs and after the eggs have hatched the new chicks are fed and brooded mainly by the female for a period of 16 to 21 days. After that period they continue to return to the nest for about a week longer, becoming fully independent about 2-3 weeks later. The nests that these chicks live in over this period of time are built by the female only and it takes her anywhere between 5 and 15 days before the chicks are born. The basket is made as an oval structure. They use pieces of ferns, bits of dry grass, shreds of bark, bracken, leaves, lichen and inflorescences, often secured down with spider web. The entrance to this nest is covered down by a small flap, and the interior is made of fine grass and plants. It is attached at the roof to a branch within a small patch of bushes or of a type of sap.

Threats

The bronzy sunbird is not threatened. It has benefited from the introduction of

Protea ''Protea'' () is a genus of South African flowering plants, also called sugarbushes (Afrikaans: ''suikerbos''). Etymology The genus ''Protea'' was named in 1735 by Carl Linnaeus, possibly after the Greek god Proteus, who could change his form a ...

farming, which is a poisonous flower grown and abundant in gardens in Zimbabwe. While odd, this flower, which is poisonous to humans, they do not affect the bronzy sunbird and provides an immense amount of

nectar Nectar is a sugar-rich liquid produced by plants in glands called nectaries or nectarines, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to animal mutualists ...

which makes it a place that the sunbirds frequent often.

References

External links

* *
Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds
Nectarinia Birds of Sub-Saharan Africa Birds of East Africa Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Nectariniidae-stub