Sunbird

Fig. This is a purple rumped sunbird

Sunbirds are colourful, attractive small passerine birds. and readily enter gardens where flowering plants are planted to attract them. The sunbirds and spiderhunters belongs to family Nectariniidae. The family is distributed throughout Africa, southern Asia and northern Australia.The sunbirds have two close relatives, the hummingbirds of the Americas and the honeyeaters of Australia. The resemblances are due to similar nectar-feeding lifestyle.There are more than 100 species of sunbird in 15 genera.Two most common species seen in India are Purple Sunbird (Nectarinia asiatica) and Purple-rumped Sunbird (Nectarinia zeylonica).When one sees them feeding nectar on flight can easily be confused it as Humming bird.However we have no Humming birds here in India.Sunbirds are frequent visitors to gardens where flowering plants are present.They also built their nest in backyard gardens .