Caption: Male Southern Double-collared Sunbird shows of its brilliant red collar and narrower, metallic blue collar while perched on a freylinia tropica plant, Curry’s Post, KZN, South Africa.
Camera: Canon EOS 50D; Lens Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM; Focal length 400mm; Shutter speed: 1/2000; Aperture: f/5.6; ISO 800; Exposure compensation: +1.
The Southern Double-collared Sunbird (
Cinnyris chalybeus) was previously called the Lesser Double-collared Sunbird. There’s also a Greater Double-collared Sunbird (
Cinnyris afer) which is evidently quite a bit bigger, with a broader scarlet collar and longer bill.
All very confusing for a novice bird person, specially if you can’t view the two birds together. To me the one in the photo looks like a Southern Double-collared, but the red band is broader than on others that I’ve photographed, yet doesn’t appear quite broad enough for a “Greater”.
To confuse matters further, there’s also a geographic variation of the Southern Double-collared called
C.c. subalaris. It has a broader scarlet breast band, approximately two-thirds the width of the Greater, and a longer bill. So this could be a
subalaris, as these birds are found in KZN, where I took the picture.
The info about
C.c.subalaris is from a new book,
Roberts Geographic Variation of Southern African Birds, by Hugh Chittenden and David Allan, with beautiful artwork by Ingrid Weiersbye. It’s way too sophisticated for me, but I bought a signed copy as I know Ingrid and her husband Roger Porter. And I’ve already learned something about variations in the Southern Double-collared Sunbird!
(Please Note: If you're not reading this post on
Wildlife Photography Blog from Wildlife Pictures Online, then you're not seeing the original version. Please go to
Colorful Double-Collared Sunbird to read the original.)
More...
Li to play in Japan
Linear Mode
