Amethyst Sunbird (Chalcomitra amethystina) [XC682076]
by Hans Matheve from Mutinondo Wilderness area, Northern Province, Zambia (song)
Amethyst Sunbird (Chalcomitra amethystina) [XC892774]
by id from City of Cape Town (near Cape Town), City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality, Western Cape, South Africa (call)
Subspecies
Forms a group with Carmelite Sunbird (Chalcomitra fuliginosa) and Green-throated Sunbird (Chalcomitra rubescens) and sometimes thought to form a superspecies with those, despite considerable geographical overlap, but all appear to hybridize occasionally in areas where they meet.
Other proposed subspecies are adjuncta from eastern Swaziland (described from Stegi, in Lebombo Mts), which is synonymized with nominate, and doggetti (Ravine, in western Kenya) and kalckreuthi (Mombasa, in south-eastern Kenya), both merged with kirkii.
The following 4 subspecies are recognised:
deminuta Cabanis, 1880 - South-eastern Gabon, southern PRCongo, western and south-eastern DRCongo, Angola, Namibia, northern and western Zambia and northern Botswana.
kirkii (Shelley, 1876) - South-eastern Sudan, south-eastern Ethiopia (sight records), Somalia (Jubba Valley), north-eastern Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, eastern and southern Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique (south to Coguna) and Zimbabwe.
amethystina (Shaw, 1812) - Eastern Botswana, southern Mozambique (south of R Limpopo), Swaziland and eastern and southern South Africa (Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal south to southern coastal western Cape).
kalckreuthi (Cabanis, 1878) - Southern Somalia, eastern Kenya and north-eastern Tanzania.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet