One more sunbird

Purple-rumped sunbird (Leptocoma zeylonica). What a minute beauty! Look at that delicate yellow breast and the glossy back! It's about 1/2 to 3/4ths the size of a sparrow and, like its relatives described in the previous post, quite loud.

Observed at St.John's Hospital, Bangalore, high up on a tree at around 3pm. We spotted two males. Ram also spotted a female, but I only caught a fleeting glimpse and cannot describe her.

Male purple-rumped sunbird

This is what the female is supposed to look like:

Check out that white eyebrow and that eye that looks like it's been kohl-lined. This is one stylish lady! One thing I realize, browsing through these pictures, is that the female purple-rumped sunbird is awfully like the female purple sunbird in appearance. One distinguishing feature might be the eyes. The purple-rumped females have a darker band, or the kohl-lined appearance, that the purple females don't.

So the two types of sunbirds are similar in size, appearance and overall general behavior. However, their habitats appear to be different: the purple-rumped sunbird is found at greater heights than the purple ones. Is that a one-off observation or a general principle? This requires further investigation.