“Two sunbirds, a male and a female had been appearing regularly in the trumpet tree (Tabebuia rosea) outside one of my bedrooms about 3 months ago around noon time. I only realised that they were Brown-throated Sunbirds (Anthreptes malacensis) after I read the comments posted by Ruici on 29 Apr regarding ‘wrestling sunbirds’ seen at Sungei Buloh, mentioning that Brown-throated females have red eyes.
“The male would make its presence known by singing loudly (sounding like territorial call to me) non-stop for a couple of minutes, pausing frequently to stick out its tongue and wipe it against the bill. As for the female, it would sing softly and intermittently. It also stuck out the tongue frequently just like the behaviour of the male.
“Two short videos of the male and female Brown-throated Sunbirds can be viewed here:”
Sun Chong Hong
Singapore
30th June 2011
Leave a Reply