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Bird · Cinnyris asiaticus
Purple sunbird
IUCN LC · Least concern
A sparrow-sized nectar feeder. The breeding male is glossy blue-black all over and looks simply black until sunlight hits him at the right angle.
👀 How to recognise it
Watch any flowering hedge - hibiscus, Russelia, coral tree - for a small bird hovering briefly then clinging sideways to a flower. The call is a sharp, insistent chewit.
Where to see it
Bengaluru
Sunbirds, not hummingbirds, are the small hovering nectar feeders of India; the two families are unrelated and hummingbirds do not occur here at all.
Lalbagh Botanical Garden · Cubbon Park · Bugle Rock Park