Scarlett Chested Sunbird

Description:

This is the Mr Scarlett Chested Sunbird, a small sunbird 6-8cm tall at the most. Striking black with red chest and a shiny turquoise head. Typically curved beak. Very active, quite vocal and always very busy. The females are also in this spotting, they are his young, both females have same colouration as the mother, brown to olive body, with cream to yellow chests, much duller in appearance and much more subdued in behaviour.

Habitat:

This pair lived in our urban garden in coastal Tanzania. They loved the Acacias, he would always be visible and on the look out, she much less visible. They nested in a Graviola tree.

Notes:

This spotting is the same subjects but over 2-3 days. This pair of Scarletts nested twice in our garden, this time successfully. I tried to stay away from them and just took a couple of shots when their little beaks started to poke out. The male sitting up anxiously in the tree watching and panicking about everything that moved. Then a couple of days later i was alerted to one on the ground, and then two. So because of the Mongoose, we rigged up a temporary nest, and by afternoon both of them had fledged. Check the inside of the nest, so comfy!