You’ve probably seen them around – these birds resemble hummingbirds and can often be seen feeding on nectar of the morning glories blooming all around school. The olive-backed sunbird can be identified through (obviously) having an olive back and yellow belly – the males are more rarely spotted and have a metallic blue chest.
This tiny bird has adapted from its mangrove home to building nests near, and in our concrete jungle. (Here you see a pair of sunbirds perched on a chandelier.)
It’s understandable how people mistake sunbirds for hummingbirds, as they are physically similar, but here is a funfact: there are no hummingbirds in Singapore!
The sunbirds mate between April and August, so if they do nest at or near your home, let them be! If you’re lucky, you might be able to observe their mating dance, where males show off tufts of saffron feathers at their throat. To photography enthusiasts: try to take photos or videos of them form a distance zooming in. Getting up close may be invasive and disruptive to nesting birds!
If you would like to find out more about this species, we recommend you to check out the Sungei Buloh Wetlands website (here).
p.s. Sungei Buloh is also reportedly a good place for sunbird watching!
p.s.s. here’s how the sunbird sounds like:
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The Seen@ Team
Ysanne and Kristin
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