Green Sunbird Anthreptes rectirostris Scientific name definitions

The Green Sunbird is widely distributed in West and Central Africa, from Guinea and Sierra Leone in the west, east across the Congo Basin to western Kenya and northwestern Tanzania, as well as north to southern South Sudan, and south to northern Angola. There appears to be a break in the distribution around the Dahomey Gap, with just one (very recent) record in Togo, and a handful of mid-1950s occurrences in neighboring Benin to the east, where the species is now postulated to be extirpated. Different subspecies occur either side of this region, with nominate rectirostris occupying the western portion of the distribution, and tephrolaemus the larger eastern section; they are most easily separated in adult male plumage by the color of the throat, yellow in the west and gray in the east. However, in addition to plumage, there are also differences in the principal calls (but apparently not song) of the two taxa, with the result that some authors have preferred to treat them as separate species, rather than as a single polytypic species.

This is a small-bodied sunbird with a short, more or less straight bill, and habits that might recall an Old World warbler to some observers. Males are metallic green above with a golden tinge to some of the upperparts, as well as the distinctive yellow or gray throat, bordered with metallic green and orange. In contrast, females are olivaceous above, with a scattering of metallic green feathers on the shoulders, and all yellow-olive below, with a pale supercilium. The species generally feeds high above the ground, but will descend lower at times, foraging for insects, fruit and seeds, and nectar, often in small parties of up to ten individuals, sometimes with other sunbirds. It is found in a variety of forest types, including both primary and secondary, being most frequently seen around edges and clearings. Green Sunbird is apparently a cooperative breeder, at least on occasion, with helpers (perhaps young from previous broods) seen at some nests, but this behavior, like most aspects of nesting (and indeed all of this species’ biology), is only very incompletely known, on the basis of purely casual and anecdotal field observations.