Avise's Birds of the World

Scarlet-chested Sunbird
Chalcomitra senegalensis

Native Range: Africa

Notes: with respect to ecology, sunbirds in several ways are Old World analogues of hummingbirds in the Americas; they are small active birds, often brightly colored with irridescence, that have a long (and often decurved) bills for sipping nectar; in doing so, they also pollinate the plants they visit by inadvertently transferring pollen from one plant to another (often on their face or forehead); also like hummingbirds, most sunbird species show strong sexual dimorphism with males being more brightly colored than females; for the Scarlet-chested Sunbird, the female (pictured below) fails to show the bright red breast of the male (who is not pictured).