Ornate Sunbird (Cinnyris ornatus)
Illustration redrawn by AI from a real photograph

Ornate Sunbird

Cinnyris ornatus Lesson, RP, 1827

10–11 cmLength

This small sunbird measures just over ten cm long, and the male has a glossy blue-black throat and breast and a yellow belly.

Looks like Garden Sunbird

How to identify

Field marks

  1. Male throat, side of neck and breast glossy blue-black
  2. Underparts yellow
  3. Male of the nominate subspecies with an olive back and black tail with white tips
  4. Bill, legs and feet black

Male, female and young

Female lacks a metallic gloss on the throat and has greenish-olive upperparts and a yellow supercilium.

Similar species

Garden Sunbird
Garden Sunbird

In this species, the male of the nominate subspecies has some purple-black metallic gloss on the forehead and paler yellow underparts.

Where and when it's recorded

No records at the public birding hotspots we track. It may be rare, remote, or its locations protected.

About

The ornate sunbird (Cinnyris ornatus) is a species of bird in the sunbird family Nectariniidae that is endemic to Mainland Southeast Asia, Sumatra, Java, Borneo and the Lesser Sunda Islands. It was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the olive-backed sunbird, now renamed the garden sunbird (Cinnyris jugularis).

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

Questions

How big is the Ornate Sunbird?

The Ornate Sunbird is about 10–11 cm long.

Where does the Ornate Sunbird live?

Its breeding range: Oriental, Australasia: southern China and Andaman Islands, Burma, Thailand, Indochina and Malay Peninsula to Greater and Lesser Sundas.

What family is the Ornate Sunbird in?

It belongs to the family Sunbirds (Nectariniidae), order Passerines (Passeriformes).

At a glance

Length
10–11 cm

Range

Oriental, Australasia: southern China and Andaman Islands, Burma, Thailand, Indochina and Malay Peninsula to Greater and Lesser Sundas

Breeding range, IOC World Bird List 15.2

Subspecies · 1
  • Cinnyris ornatus rhizophorae s, se China including Hainan, and n Vietnam

Classification

Order
Passerines Passeriformes
Family
Sunbirds Nectariniidae
Genus
Cinnyris

Other birds in the genus Cinnyris

Olive-bellied SunbirdOlive-bellied SunbirdCinnyris chloropygiusTiny SunbirdTiny SunbirdCinnyris minullusEastern Miombo SunbirdEastern Miombo SunbirdCinnyris manoensisWestern Miombo SunbirdWestern Miombo SunbirdCinnyris gertrudisSouthern Double-collared SunbirdSouthern Double-collared SunbirdCinnyris chalybeusNeergaard's SunbirdNeergaard's SunbirdCinnyris neergaardiRwenzori Double-collared SunbirdRwenzori Double-collared SunbirdCinnyris stuhlmanniWhyte's Double-collared SunbirdWhyte's Double-collared SunbirdCinnyris whyteiPrigogine's Double-collared SunbirdPrigogine's Double-collared SunbirdCinnyris prigogineiLudwig's Double-collared SunbirdLudwig's Double-collared SunbirdCinnyris ludovicensisNorthern Double-collared SunbirdNorthern Double-collared SunbirdCinnyris reichenowiGreater Double-collared SunbirdGreater Double-collared SunbirdCinnyris afer
Ornate Sunbird

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Free to use with credit: “Illustration: Bird Album (birdalbum.com)”. Drawn by AI from a reference photo by JJ Harrison (https://www.jjharrison.com.au/). ↗

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