In Sundghatta, we stopped the car to watch a few birds, and as usual, these beautiful little

PURPLE-RUMPED SUNBIRDS

caught our attention as they flitted to and fro on the Calatropis bushes.

Here’s the lady…

and the gentleman….

The Purple-rumped Sunbird(Leptocoma zeylonica) are endemic to the Indian Subcontinent. They usually feed on nectar from flowers, but can sometimes eat insects. Purple-rumped Sunbirds are tiny at less than 10 cm long. they have medium-length thin down-curved bills and brush-tipped tubular tongues, both adaptations to their nectar feeding.I don’t know how they can eat insects with that!When the flowers are too deep to probe, they sometimes pierce the base of the flower and rob the nectar.

Their hanging pouch nests are made up of cobwebs, lichens and plant material. Imagine, collecting cobwebs and making nests out of that!

Male sunbirds can be very aggressive towards what they perceive to be rivalry.

here

is my post (July 23, 2010) about the way a male Sunbird attacked his own reflection, at JLR Bandipur, believing it to be a rival!