A tiny, short-billed sunbird with a metallic-green back and a yellow belly. The male has a green throat and a narrow purplish breast band; the female is duller, with a yellow throat and no breast band. Pairs frequent forest edge, woodland, and savanna, where they join mixed-species flocks to glean leaves and hover to catch insect prey. But they will also feed on fruit and nectar, often by piercing the base of a flower and sucking out nectar without pollinating. The “yellow-bellied” races of Variable Sunbird differ from Collared Sunbird by being larger, with a longer bill and broader purple-blue breast band.