Suimanga Malgache

Identificación

The souimanga sunbird is 10 centimetres (3.9 in) long with a wingspan of 13 centimetres (5.1 in). The black bill is long, thin and curved. Males of the nominate subspecies have a metallic green head, back and throat. The breast is blackish with a more or less continuous red band while the belly is yellow and the wings and tail are brown. There are yellow tufts at the sides of the breast which become visible when the birds lift their wings in courtship display. Males presumably moult into a duller eclipse plumage by March–April, losing most of the metallic and red feathering for a few months. Females have grey-brown upperparts, a dull yellow belly and a grey throat and breast with darker markings. Juveniles are similar to the adult females but the chin and throat are sometimes black and the upperparts may be more olive.<p>Subspecies C. s. abbotti is larger - 11 centimetres (4.3 in) long with a 14 centimetres (5.5 in) wingspan. The males have a broader red breastband and there is no yellow on the underparts which are dark brown (ssp. abbotti) or blackish (ssp. buchenorum).<p>Male birds of the nominate group have wings of c.50–58 millimetres (2.0–2.3 in), tails of c.31–41 millimetres (1.2–1.6 in) and 20–25 millimetres (0.79–0.98 in) long bills. Females measure 10% less.<p>This bird has a chirruping flight call and a loud, hoarse alarm call. Only the male sings; a fast and scratchy song with frequently repeated phrases.

Taxonomía

The souimanga sunbird was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the tree-creepers in the genus Certhia and coined the binomial name Certhia sovimanga. The specific epithet sovimanga comes from a French name for the bird, Souï-manga. Gmelin based his account on "Le grimpereau violet de Madagascar" that had been described and illustrated in 1760 by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson and Le Soui-Manga that had been described in 1778 by the Comte de Buffon. The souimanga sunbird is now placed in the large genus Cinnyris that was introduced in 1816 by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier.<p>Five subspecies are recognised:<p>The subspecies C. s. abbotti was formerly sometimes treated as a separate species, Abbott's sunbird (Cinnyris abbotti).

Nombre científico

Cinnyris sovimanga

Autoridad

(Gmelin, JF, 1788)

Orden

Passeriformes

Familia

Nectariniidae

Género

Cinnyris

Distribución y hábitat

Migración

Especie residente

Comportamiento

Patrón migratorio: Especie residente.

Conservación

Tendencia poblacional: estable.

Tendencia poblacional

estable