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Olive-bellied Sunbird Cinnyris chloropygius Scientific name definitions

Robert Cheke and Clive Mann
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Text last updated January 1, 2008

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Originally Appeared in

HBW Alive

Field Identification

10·5–11 cm; male 4·7–8 g, female 5–7·5 g. Male nominate race is metallic green on head and throat and from crown to uppertail-coverts; upperwing brown, secondaries narrowly edged olive, tail black with dark blue sheen; blue band below throat merges into scarlet breastband (10 mm wide), otherwise olive below, pectoral tufts bright yellow; underwing off-white, washed yellow or grey; iris brown; bill and legs black. Female is olive above, with pale supercilium, dark stripe through eye, brown flight-feathers and wing-coverts edged green-olive, tail black with dark blue sheen; chin off-white, throat pale olive, underparts olive-tinged yellow; bare parts as male. Immature male resembles female, but more brown above; some subadult males retain white underwing-coverts from immature plumage, even when iridescent feathers present, and thus confusable with C. minullus. Race kempi male is lighter, more olive, below and has narrower, more orange breastband than nominate; orphogaster male has darker abdomen than nominate; bineschensis is like previous, but male abdomen is darker, more sooty-coloured.

Systematics History

Editor's Note: This article requires further editing work to merge existing content into the appropriate Subspecies sections. Please bear with us while this update takes place.

This species and C. minullus sometimes placed in genus Chalcomitra. Race bineschensis poorly differentiated from, and sometimes synonymized with, orphogaster; moreover, it is isolated from other races of present species, and has been suggested also as being possibly misidentified C. reichenowi. Proposed races luehderi (described from Bipindi, in Cameroon) and insularis (Bioko) synonymized with nominate; uellensis (Koloka, Angu and Amadi, on R Uelle, in DRCongo) merged with orphogaster. Females in Cameroon and DRCongo having light yellow pectoral tufts and red breastband but no metallic plumage described as race ogilviegranti, but shown to be aberrantly plumaged females of nominate. Four subspecies recognized.

Subspecies

SUBSPECIES

Cinnyris chloropygius kempi Scientific name definitions

Distribution

Senegal E to SW Nigeria.
SUBSPECIES

Cinnyris chloropygius chloropygius Scientific name definitions

Cinnyris chloropygius chloropygius
C. c. chloropygius +1

Distribution

Bioko and SE Nigeria E to S Chad and Central African Republic, S to NW Angola and W DRCongo.
SUBSPECIES

Cinnyris chloropygius bineschensis Scientific name definitions

Cinnyris chloropygius bineschensis
C. c. bineschensis

Distribution

SW Ethiopia.
SUBSPECIES

Cinnyris chloropygius orphogaster Scientific name definitions

Distribution

C and E DRCongo and extreme SW South Sudan S to NE Angola, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, W Kenya and W Tanzania.

Distribution

Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Habitat

Clearings in forest, cultivations, gardens, well-wooded savanna, coastal thickets and mangroves.

Movement

Partial migrant in W Africa, where some travel N at start of rainy season.

Diet and Foraging

Insects, spiders (Araneae), nectar, seeds and bits of flowers. Forages mostly in pairs or small groups. Visits Cogniauxia podolaena, Manihot esculenta, Manihot utilissima, Ochthocosmus africanus, Psidium guajava, Spathodea nilotica, Thevetia peruviana, Turraeanthus africanus, and flowers of genera Bougainvillea, Canna, Clerodendrum, Coffea, Erythrina, Heliconia, Hibiscus, Ipomoea, Maerua, Musa, Solanum and Yucca. Robs flowers of nectar, and hovers in front of flowers.

Sounds and Vocal Behavior

Short song 3–4 seconds, beginning with “pisr-pisr”, then fast rising and falling notes, “sisisisisi-sisisisi-si”, and other warblings. Calls include repetitions of “chip”; also “zit-zit, zeet-zeet” or “psee”.

Breeding

Laying recorded in Oct–Nov in Sierra Leone, Feb and Nov in Liberia, Dec in Ivory Coast, Feb, Apr and Sept–Oct in Ghana, May–Oct in Nigeria, Feb–Jun, Aug–Dec in Cameroon, Sept on Bioko, Aug and Dec–Mar in Gabon, Jan and Sept–Oct in PRCongo, in all months except May and Jul in DRCongo, Jul in Ethiopia, Feb–Mar, Jul–Sept and Nov in Uganda, Nov in Tanzania, and Mar and Dec in Angola. Untidy oval nest made of grass, bark and leaves, with short messy “beard” and porch, lined with grass, plant material, feathers and/or wool, attached 1–10 m up on branch of bush or palm. Clutch 1–3 eggs, long pointed oval, white or grey, with grey blotches or stripes and grey or brown spots concentrated at wider end; incubation by female only, chicks fed by both parents; no information on duration of incubation and nestling periods. Nests parasitized by African Emerald Cuckoo (Chrysococcyx cupreus) and Western Green-backed Honeyguide (Prodotiscus insignis).

Conservation Status

Conservation status on Birdlife LC Least Concern
Not globally threatened. Generally common throughout much of range, but rare in Ethiopia and Sudan. Occurs in several protected areas, e.g. Korup National Park, in Cameroon.
Distribution of the Olive-bellied Sunbird - Range Map
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Distribution of the Olive-bellied Sunbird

eBird and Macaulay Library

Recommended Citation

Cheke, R. and C. Mann (2020). Olive-bellied Sunbird (Cinnyris chloropygius), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.olbsun3.01
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