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White-bellied Sunbird (Cinnyris talatala)

White-bellied Sunbird

Cinnyris talatala

Least Concern

Overview

The white-bellied sunbird, also known as the white-breasted sunbird, is a species of bird in the family Nectariniidae. Classified as Least Concern, it is common to locally abundant across parts of southern Africa.

Habitat

Found from Angola to southern Tanzania and further south, it is prevalent across northern Namibia, northern and south-eastern Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Eswatini, and north-eastern South Africa. It generally prefers semi-arid savanna woodland, including Acacia, bushwillow (Combretum), riparian thickets, Zambezi teak (Baikiaea plurijuga), and mixed miombo (Brachystegia) woodland.

Diet

Primarily feeding on nectar supplemented with arthropods, it often joins mixed-species foraging flocks during the day. In the late afternoon, it regularly hawks insects aerially and gleans invertebrates such as aphids, ants, grasshoppers, moths, and spiders from foliage.

Did you know?

The nest is built solely by the female in about 5–8 days, consisting of dry material bound together with spider web and lined thickly with plant down, feathers, or wool. It is often attached to cactus branches or trees, sometimes alongside active paper wasp nests.

Sources