Prigogine's sunbird or Prigogine's double-collared sunbird (''Cinnyris prigoginei'') 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 lightweig ...

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 ...

Taxonomy

It is sometimes considered a subspecies of the

greater double-collared sunbird The greater double-collared sunbird (''Cinnyris afer'') (formerly placed in the genus ''Nectarinia''), is a small bird in the sunbird family. Distribution and habitat The sunbird breeds in southern South Africa. It is mainly resident, but part ...

(''Cinnyris afer''). Alternatively, it has been considered related to other members of the greater double-collared sunbird species complex, including Stuhlmann's sunbird (''Cinnyris stuhlmanni'') and montane double-collared sunbird (''Cinnyris ludovicensis''), but it is now regarded as a full species.

Distribution and habitat

It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to the

Marungu highlands The Marungu highlands are in the Tanganyika Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the west of the southern half of Lake Tanganyika. Location The highlands are divided by the Mulobozi River, which flow into the lake just north of ...

Tanganyika Province Tanganyika is one of the 21 new provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo created in the 2015 repartitioning. Tanganyika, Haut-Katanga, Haut-Lomami and Lualaba provinces are the result of the splitting up of the former Katanga provinc ...

, southeastern

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial ...

Conservation

It is threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

References

Prigogine's double-collared sunbird Birds of Central Africa Prigogine's double-collared sunbird {{Nectariniidae-stub