© Santiago Caballero Carrera eBird S54106214 Macaulay Library ML 146686521
© Lars Petersson | My World of Bird Photography
© Neil Osborne
© Stephen Gast
© Lars Petersson | My World of Bird Photography
+ 2
© Tommy Pedersen

Superb Sunbird Cinnyris superbus

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Identification

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A large, long-billed sunbird in which males and females are very different. Males are dark, with iridescent green upperparts, a bluish-purple throat and breast, and a blood-red belly. Females have olive-brown upperparts, mostly yellowish underparts, an orangish undertail, and a prominent pale eye-stripe. Found in rainforest, gallery forest, and adjacent lush savanna, mostly in the canopy. Similar to Johanna’s Sunbird, but larger; male is separated by the bluish-purple throat and breast and female by the unstriped underparts. One common call is distinctive and unusual for a sunbird, sounding more like a puffback: a nasal “kyyep.” The song is a few staccato clear notes, sometimes followed by a fast jumble.

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