The male Amethyst Sunbird has brown/black plumage, with a dashing metallic green forecrown and iridescent purple throat and shoulder patches. The female’s plumage is dark brown, with yellow streaks on the chest and belly.

Their bills are perfectly curved to reach nectar in flowers. In Rooiels we have seen them feeding on aloes, Kniphofia (pokers) and erica. They eat insects and spiders and compete with other birds for emergent termites. Lots of those in our area!

The male hops from branch to branch during the breeding season. When the female is attracted, he does an elaborate dance, dropping one wing, then the other and then both, before fluttering excitedly.

No dull little female can resist that. One thing leads to another and soon she builds a thick-walled nest of grass and leaves, held together by cobwebs. She even adds a hood. With such an efficient wife, it is no wonder they are monogamous.

The male plays hardly any role in the rearing. The female is solely responsible for the incubation of 1 – 3 speckled eggs over a 3-week period. She might even be a brood hostess to our local Klaas’s cuckoo.

The male leaves most of the feeding of the chicks, which fledge before they are three weeks old, to the female.

Amethyst sunbirds are found south of the equator in Africa in open woodland, near nectar-bearing plants. They are mostly in the Northern and Eastern parts of South Africa, and along the coast from Mozambique to Cape Town.

In Rooiels, we only started noticing one breeding pair in 2023, when they visited our gardens. We noticed the mating dance and saw one fledgeling.