Purple Sunbird

How to identify

Field marks

1. Breeding-season male with blue-purple-black upperparts
2. Bill decurved
3. Tail short and square-ended
4. Both sexes with white tips to the outer tail feathers

Male, female and young

Breeding-season male also has purple-black underparts; female olive-brown above and yellowish below; juvenile plumage resembles that of the female.

Voice

Song begins with a series of rapid trills followed by clear metallic notes; also calls “chwit”.

Where and when it's recorded

Purple Sunbird has been recorded at 510 of the 8,171 birding hotspots we track, in 16 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

1. Fergusson College CampusIndia8,949 records
2. GKVK CampusIndia5,803 records
3. Private estate near Green MubazzarahUnited Arab Emirates3,163 records

Countries and regions with the most records

IndiaUnited Arab EmiratesSri LankaThailandCambodiaBangladeshNepalPakistan

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

About

The purple sunbird (Cinnyris asiaticus) is a small bird in the sunbird family. It occurs in parts of the Arabian peninsula and South and Southeast Asia. It has a fast and direct flight and can take nectar by hovering like a hummingbird but often perches at the base of flowers.

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

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