Purple-rumped Sunbird

A colorful sunbird; the male has a green metallic crown and shoulder patch, a dark brown body with purple a rump, a purple throat, lemon-yellow underparts, and whitish flanks. The female is light grayish-brown above and pale yellow below. The female can be separated from female Purple Sunbirds by their grayish-white (not yellow) throat. Often seen hopping and hovering around flowers, picking up insects, and probing flowers for nectar. The song is a twittering “tityou, tityou, trritt, tityou.”

Common breeding resident in home gardens, forests and cultivation from lowlands to mid hills while scarce in higher hills. It lives in pairs and visit flowers all day long to feed on nectar. Also it eats many small insects.

The purple-rumped sunbird (Leptocoma zeylonica) is a sunbird endemic to the Indian Subcontinent. Like other sunbirds, they are small in size, feeding mainly on nectar but sometimes take insects, particularly when feeding young. They can hover for short durations but usually perch to lap nectar from flowers.