Look at this great pose by the King of the Sunbirds!
I was excited and lucky as I got my first Spring sighting of not one, but two young Malachite Sunbirds.
They love the Protea Pincushion flowers and when we arrived on the wine farm I kept an eye on the Protea bushes.
Not too long before I heard that familiar sunbird call and I was there in a flash.
Come and see!
Then he went about his business, but sadly took off.
A scene below next to the main entrance of the wine farm!
Here below is the second guy and thankfully he stayed a bit longer!
Those metallic colors are so prominent in the clear sunlight, but we had roaming clouds that covered the sun here!
Nevertheless, even in dappled sunlight he still looked great!
Some kind of a bee was approaching the scene here!
Our guy jumped to another flower head!
"The Malachite Sunbird (Nectarinia famosa),
This large sunbird is found in hilly fynbos, protea and aloe habitat and cool montane and coastal scrub, up to 2,800 m altitude in South Africa. It also occurs in parks and gardens. It is resident, but may move downhill in winter".
"Most sunbird species can take nectar by hovering like a hummingbird, but usually perch to feed most of the time. As a fairly large sunbird, the malachite sunbird is no exception. They have long thin down-curved bills and brush-tipped tubular tongues, both adaptations to nectar feeding".
This below is where we found the Malachite's!
"Some plant species from which malachite sunbirds feed include many Aloe species, such as Aloe broomii, Aloe ferox and Aloe arborescens, and Protea species, such as Protea roupelliae as well as various other bird-pollinated plants such as Leonotis and Strelitzia".
"It has been suggested that their behaviour of guarding flowering plants may have led to the selection and evolution of long-tubed flowers that would otherwise tend to be robbed (nectar taken but not pollinated) by short-billed sunbird species".
Source
And That's All Friends!
Note: All photos are my own, unedited and cropped for uploading!
Camera used: Canon Powershot SX60HS
I leave you with this:
“Health is the new wealth. Happiness is the new rich. Inner peace is the new success. Kindness is the new cool.”—Syed Balkhi
We hope that you have enjoyed the pictures and the information of this South African bird.
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