Fire-tailed Sunbird

How to identify

Field marks

1. Breeding-season male with a scarlet nape and back
2. Male breast orange-yellow; belly olive
3. Male with a long scarlet tail; about 15 cm including the tail
4. Female head and throat grayish-olive; belly yellow

Male, female and young

Female about two-thirds the length of the male; male in non-breeding plumage resembles the female but has a yellower belly and scarlet uppertail-coverts and tail-sides.

Similar species

Green-tailed Sunbird

In females, this species has a straighter bill, a squarer tail without white tips, and more prominent olive-yellow on the rump.

Where and when it's recorded

Fire-tailed Sunbird has been recorded at 112 of the 8,276 birding hotspots we track, in 6 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

1. Mt. PhulchowkiNepal207 records
2. Baihualing [General Area]China181 records
3. Mt. Phulchowki - Lowest Few Miles of RoadNepal138 records

Countries and regions with the most records

NepalChinaBhutanMyanmar (Burma)IndiaThailand

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

Questions