Wildlife on Wednesday ... the Yellow-Bellied Sunbird.

Let me introduce you to the most commonly sighted bird in my garden and indeed, a well known and loved bird in the north of Oz.  I see these little guys and get to enjoy their beautiful song almost every day - it's Nectarina jugularis, the Yellow-Bellied Sunbird.

Here's the female Yellow-Bellied Sunbird with her long, slender curved black bill; her olive-yellow feathers on her back and wings; her deep yellow feathers below and her white tipped tail.

Here's the male with his long, slender curved black bill; his olive-yellow upper feathers; his deep yellow feathers below; his dark metallic purplish-blue bib and his white tipped tail.

Here's a better view of the male's fabulous blue bib ....

... and the top of his wing feathers.

Now you may have noticed that the sunbirds were feasting on the same flowers in all these photos.  These are the flowers of my Combretum constrictum.  I only have one Combretum growing near the corner of my front verandah and the sunbirds spend a lot of time nesting in this shrub and feeding on its nectar.  They seem to love the rather unusual blooms on this shrub.

So while we're rocking away on our rocking chairs in this corner of the verandah, these fabulous birds are flying almost within arm's reach of us.  It's delightful sitting there listening to their song while sipping on a cuppa.

While these birds seem to adore the Combretum's flowers, they also seem to love the blooms of the Hibiscus rosa-sinensis .....

.... and the tubular blooms on this Russelia.

Can you see a common theme here?  Yes ... red!  They seem to adore the nectar from red flowers.

The female Yellow-Bellied Sunbird constructs the most amazingly decorated and elaborate nest ... and they don't mind building them close to the homes of humans.  This one was built on one of my hanging plants just outside my kitchen window.

Now as fate would have it ... I had been planning to make the Sunbird the topic of this Wednesday's post for a week now and just this afternoon I had the opportunity to capture the male Sunbird's song.  The quality of the video is not great, but you do get to hear the song quite well ... so enjoy!  Just click on this link .....
Song of the male Yellow-Bellied Sunbird