10 Most Coloured Species of Sunbirds Found in India

Sunbirds and spiderhunters are nectar-feeding birds found in India, The males and females sunbirds of India are always appear in different plumage. Males are brightly coloured birds but females are little yellow, olive above and grey.

There are feeding mainly on flower nectar but sometimes also take insects, found in a variety of habitats to the Indian Subcontinent. Here is the list of 10 sun birds species found in the Indian Subcontinent along with Van Hasselt’s Sunbird and Ruby-cheeked Sunbird.

Purple Sunbird

Purple sunbird found mainly in India and Southeast Asia, Like other species of sunbird family they also feed mainly on flower nectar, fruits and insects.

This small sunbird species take nectar by hovering like a hummingbird and are always seen in pairs in the garden and urban areas.

Purple-rumped Sunbird

Purple-rumped sunbird is another most common species of sunbird endemic to the Indian Subcontinent, They can be easily distinguished by light coloured from the purple sunbird. Like other sunbirds found in India, they are also feeds mainly on nectar and insects sometimes.

Loten’s Sunbird

Loten’s sunbird is also known as the long-billed sunbird endemic to peninsular India, very similar to the purple sunbird but distinguished by the longer bill.

The long-billed sunbird or maroon-breasted sunbird is also insectivorous like other Indian species of sunbirds and tends to hover at flowers for nectar.

Vigor’s Sunbird

Vigors’s Sunbird species is endemic to the Western Ghats of India, distributed mainly in and around the Western Ghat states of Maharashtra,
Karnataka and Kerala. The male western crimson sunbird has red, yellow, grey and black on the lower back while tail is bottle green. Photo – Prasad Datar.

Crimson-backed Sunbird

Crimson-backed sunbird is a small sunbird species, endemic to the Western Ghats of India and found in forest, ghats and jungle area of urban. They appear very similar to purple-rumped sunbird but very tiny is size – only 8 cm long.

Black-throated Sunbird

Black-throated sunbird species of bird found in the Indian Subcontinent, The males are similarly brightly colored birds with purplish-blue crown. The black-throated sunbird also found in adjoining regions of Southeast Asia.

Fire-tailed Sunbird

Fire-tailed Sunbird is only found in the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent and in some adjoining regions in Southeast Asia. The species primarily occurs in the Himalayas and eat insects and also nectar from the flowers of the valleys.

Mrs. Gould’s Sunbird

Mrs. Gould’s sunbird species native to foothills of the Himalayas and Southeast Asia, The blue tail and bright yellow and red color bird which belongs to the same family of Nectariniidae that includes both Sunbirds and spiderhunters.

Green-tailed Sunbird

Green-tailed sunbird only found in the northern regions of the Indian subcontinent, lives in open mountain woods and also found into some parts of Southeast Asia. This beautiful species of sunbird from the Nectariniidae family has brightly colored plumage. Image source – Wiki

Little Spiderhunter

Little spiderhunter birds are also found near flowering plants, close to their favourite flowering trees where they obtain nectar. The spiderhunters are long-billed nectar-feeding birds like other species of sunbirds found in India, Within India there are found from Western Ghats to Eastern Ghats.