Beautiful Sunbird (Cinnyris pulchellus) Fact Sheet: Reproduction & Development

Displays (Cheke and Mann 2008)

• Elaborate displays by males to females
• Video: courtship display of a South African sunbird
• Male sings
• May chase female until she perches [sunbirds, general]
• When male has female’s attention, spreads his wings and raises tail
• Sings and flicks his wings
• May also use elongated tail feathers in displaying [observed in similar Malachite sunbird] (Evans 2003)
• Females may use to assess quality of potential mates
• Female may quiver her wings [sunbirds, general]

Territoriality

• Males defend territories during the breeding season (Fry et al. 2000; Cheke et al. 2001; Cheke and Mann 2008)
• Display and sing from prominent, exposed perches (tops of trees or bushes) (Cheke and Mann 2008)
• High vantage point; allows territory holder to survey his domain
• Also alerts intruders that the territory already has an owner
• Show colors of underparts, arching back and lifting wings (“upright pose”) (Cheke et al. 2001)
• Flick wings up, fanning tail, and switching tail from side-to-side (Cheke and Mann 2008)
• Chase away rivals (Cheke and Mann 2008)

Breeding

• Breed during rainy/wet season (Cheke et al. 2001; Cheke and Mann 2008)
  • Insects available to feed to their chicks
• Laying dates
  • Generally June-October, though some pockets breed in winter months (Fry et al. 2000)
  • Timing of egg laying varies by location (see Cheke and Mann 2008, p. 283)
  • Country-by-country reports given in Cheke et al. (2001)
• Males territorial
  • See Territorial Behavior
• Polygamy suspected, as a male may court two females at once (Cheke et al. 2001; Cheke and Mann 2008)
  • Possibly monogamous
• Biparental care, but female has main responsibility of raising young (Cheke and Mann 2008; Winkler et al. 2015)
  • Female: builds nest, incubates eggs, broods young, and feeds chicks
  • Male: attends nest and feeds chicks
• Number of broods per year: not reported
• Duration of breeding cycle: not reported

Nest

• Constructed solely by female [sunbirds, general] (Cheke and Mann 2008; Winkler et al. 2015)
• Suspended from tree branches (Fry et al. 2000; Cheke et al. 2001; Cheke and Mann 2008)
  • Placed low in trees or shrubs, 1-6 m (3.3-19.7 ft) above the ground
  • Jubube, acacia, Citrus (lime or orange), Bauhinia reticulata, and tamarind trees
• Nests built in exposed positions [sunbirds, general] (Cheke and Mann 2008)
  • Vulnerable to predators or nest parasites
  • Need to be well-concealed
• Compact (Mackworth-Praed and Grant 1973)
• Purse-shaped with a central entrance (Cheke et al. 2001; Cheke and Mann 2008)
• Made of various fibers (Mackworth-Praed and Grant 1973; Fry et al. 2000; Cheke et al. 2001; Cheke and Mann 2008)
  • Bark, twigs, dried grass, leaves, vegetable down, plant stems, feathers, and snakeskin
  • Tightly bound with spiders’ webs, especially at entrance and attachment
  • Lined with feathers or vegetable down
  • Sometimes small amounts of human-made materials, such as paper and light-weight plastic, present [sunbirds, general] (Cheke and Mann 2008)
  • Sometimes decorated with lichen (Cheke et al. 2001)
• Porch and beard
  • Some nests have a “porch” or trailing “beard” of vegetation hanging underneath (not common) (Cheke et al. 2001; Winkler et al. 2015)
  • Aid in concealment, when present (Cheke and Mann 2008)
  • Porch provides shade from sun and shelter from rain (Cheke and Mann 2008)
• Dimensions (Cheke et al. 2001)
  • Height: 120 mm
  • Width: 50 mm
  • Internal depth: 35 mm
  • Entrance hole in center: 25 mm diameter
  • Hanging attachment, sometimes present: 35 mm
• Nests of C. p. melanogastrus (Cheke et al. 2001)
  • Hang from tip of branches, approximately 0.3 m long
  • 1 m (3.3 ft) up in Acacia mellifera
  • Made of dry leaves and vegetable matter
  • Woven with cobwebs
  • Beard
  • Lined with feathers

Eggs

• Clutch size: 1-2 eggs (Cheke et al. 2001; Cheke and Mann 2008)
• Shape: long, ovate (Fry et al. 2000)
• Shell: thin, fragile (Fry et al. 2000)
• Eggs of C. p. pulchellus (Fry et al. 2000; Cheke et al. 2001; Cheke and Mann 2008)
  • Color and markings highly variable
  • Ground color: usually pale bluish-grey, green, brown, or grayish-white
  • Markings: dark grey, brown, or ashy longitudinal streaks, blotches and spots
  • Sometimes tinged olive and marked with dark sepia, or so heavily marked that eggs appear uniformly grey
  • Sometimes slightly glossy
  • 15.1-18.0 mm x 9.9-12.4 mm
• Eggs of C. p. melanogastrus (taken from Cheke et al. 2001)
  • Ground color: soft-toned bright green
  • Markings: violet-grey spots and clouds more towards the pointed end; S-shaped flourishes and spots more towards the blunt end
  • 16.0-17.0 mm x 11.0-12.0 mm

Incubation and brooding

• Only females incubate and brood (Cheke and Mann 2008; Winkler et al. 2015)
• Incubation: 14-15 days (Winkler et al. 2015)
• May limit incubation during the day to prevent embryos from overheating (Koenig 1956; Drent 1970)

Food provisioning to chicks

• Both male and female feed young (Winkler et al. 2015)
• Relative female-to-male effort not reported for C. pulchellus [sunbirds, general] (Cheke and Mann 2008)
• Before fledging: Females may put in most labor; not reported if males assist
• After fledging: Males may bring more food, as in other sunbird species

Protecting young

• Attack and deter predators [sunbirds, general] (Markman et al. 1996; Cheke and Mann 2008)

Nest maintenance

• Remove fecal sacs from nest [sunbirds, general] (Cheke and Mann 2008)
• Keeps nest clean
• Reduces risk of detection by predators

Nestlings

• Physical description
  • Not reported in literature
  • May have short, gray down and yellow stripes along jawline
• Diet
  • Not reported for C. pulchellus
  • Likely insects and spiders, as for other sunbird chicks [sunbirds, general] (Cheke and Mann 2008)
    • Eat spiders in managed care (Dave Rimlinger, personal communication)

Fledglings

• Fledging period: up to 14-18 days (Elphick 2014)
• Fledglings leave nest after 2-3 weeks (Winkler et al. 2015)
• Diet
  • Not reported in literature for C. pulchellus
  • Likely insects and spiders, as for other sunbirds [sunbirds, general] (Cheke and Mann 2008)

After fledging: transitioning to adulthood [sunbirds, general] (Cheke and Mann 2008)

• Fledglings gradually venture farther from the nest
• Independent after a few weeks
• Parents continue to feed for up to two weeks after fledging
  • Fledglings often fed away from the nest site
• Young remain in natal area until leaving parents’ territory

Wild populations

• Not known

Managed care

• No AZA estimates

Survival rates

• Few studies on sunbird longevity or survival rates
• High survival rates in some sunbird species, compared to other tropical birds (Evans 2003)
  • Orange-tufted Sunbird/Palestine Sunbird: 63% (Zilberman et al. 2001)
  • Malachite Sunbird, Nectarinia johnstoni: 72% (high altitude East African mountains)

Egg and nestling mortality [sunbirds, general] (Cheke and Mann 2008, except as noted)

• Egg stage (causes described for Palestine Sunbird by Cheke and Mann 2008, except as noted]
  • Infertility
  • Insufficient nutrition available to embryos (Eising et al. 2009)
  • Desertion
  • Egg shell breakage and embryonic death
  • Adverse weather damages nest (Cheke et al. 2001)
  • Predation of eggs
    • Snakes (Cheke et al. 2001)
    • Larger birds (Markman et al. 1996)
• Nestling stage
  • Brood parasites
    • Not yet reported for C. pulchellus
    • In other sunbird species
      • Cuckoos, Cuculidae
      • Honeyguides, Indicatoridae
  • Infanticide by other males looking to claim territory (Markman et al. 1996; Cheke and Mann 2008)
  • Starvation (Cheke et al. 2001; Cheke and Mann 2008)
    • Parents die
    • Parents cannot find enough food

Fledgling and adult mortality [sunbirds, general]

• Fledgling stage
  • Predators
    • Birds of prey (Cheke et al. 2001)
  • Accidental death
    • Becoming tangled in spiders’ webs (Cheke et al. 2001)
• Adult stage
  • Predators
    • Birds of prey (Cheke et al. 2001)
  • Competition for food (feeding territories)
    • Access to foraging sites aggressively defended by conspecifics and other animals (Akinpelu 1989; Evans 2003; Tropek et al. 2013)

Parasites (non-comprehensive list)

• Blood parasites, e.g., Haemoproteus, Plasmodium, and Leucocytozoon (Cheke et al. 2001; Chasar et al. 2009; Lauron et al. 2015) [Beautiful Sunbird and sunbirds, general]
• Nematode worms (Yeh 1954)
• Feather lice, Ricinus timmermanni (Cheke et al. 2001)
• Mites found in nostrils of some sunbirds [e.g., Copper Sunbird, Scarlet-chested Sunbird] (Fain and Mariaux 1991; Kaluz et al. 2011)
  • Also, hummingbirds (Kaluz et al. 2011)

Diseases (non-comprehensive list)

• Fungal infections in managed care
• Candidiasis (Peaker 1990)

Courtship display by a male Beautiful Sunbird, Cinnyris pulchellus.

This male began displaying when a female landed on a nearby branch. Often referred to as an "upright pose."

Image credit: © Frans Vandewalle/Snarfel at Flickr and The Internet Bird Collection. All rights reserved. Used with permission from the artist.

Image details: Taken 23 November 2013 in Gambia.

A female Beautiful Sunbird, Cinnyris pulchellus, builds a nest in an Acacia tree.

Image credit: © John Wright at Wrights Wanderings. All rights reserved. Used with permission from the artist.

Image details: Taken 28 February 2013 in Gambia.