Variable Sunbird (Cinnyris venustus)

Other Names (World)
Variable Sunbird, Yellow-bellied Sunbird, Yellow-breasted Sunbird, Buff-breasted Sunbird, Buff-chested Sunbird, White-bellied Sunbird (albiventris), White-bellied Variable Sunbird (albiventris), Somali Sunbird (albiventris), White-bellied Somali Sunbird (albiventris), Orange-bellied Sunbird (igneiventris), Orange-bellied Variable Sunbird (igneiventris)

Family
Nectariniidae (Sunbirds)

Size
11 cm

First Described (Guide)
(Shaw & Nodder, 1799)

Habitat
Subtropical and tropical dry shrubland, dry savanna.

Range (Guide)

Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], C�te dIvoire, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania [United Republic of], Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Rarity Status
Currently this species is not classified as a rarity in this country OR information has not been updated.

Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).

Status LC
For more information see BirdLife International Species Factsheet.

Voice
Xeno-Canto Sound Files (more (99)...)

Variable Sunbird (Cinnyris venustus) [XC515318]
by Louis A. Hansen from Banda-cottage, forest edge, agricultur landscape, Mafwemiro forest, Mpwapwa, Dodoma Region, Tanzania (call)

Variable Sunbird (Cinnyris venustus) [XC440833]
by Bram Piot from Marangu, Rombo, Kilimanjaro Region, Gambia (song)

Subspecies
Genus often subsumed in Nectarinia. Has been thought to be closely related to, and possibly forming a superspecies with, Ursula's Sunbird (Cinnyris ursulae).

Other proposed subspecies include blicki (described from southern shore L Stefanie, in south-western Ethiopia), synonymized with albiventris, and sukensis (from R Turkwell, in northern Kenya), merged with fazoqlensis; kuanzae (Malanje, in northern Angola), niassae (Malawi), cyanescens (Zanzibar) and stierlingi (Uhehe, in southern Tanzania) are all treated as synonyms of falkensteini.

The following 5 subspecies are recognised:

venustus (Shaw & Nodder, 1799) - Senegal, Gambia and Sierra Leone east to Nigeria, northern Cameroon and Central African Republic.
fazoqlensis (Heuglin, 1874) - Eastern Sudan, Eritrea and western Ethiopia.
albiventris (Strickland, 1852) - Eastern and southern Ethiopia, Somalia and north-eastern Kenya.
falkensteini Fischer, GA & Reichenow, 1884 - South-eastern Sudan south to western and southern Kenya, and from southern Gabon and western Angola east to southern DRCongo, Tanzania (including Pemba I and Zanzibar), Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
igneiventris Reichenow, 1899 - Eastern DRCongo, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.

References
See References.

Files:

JPG files for Variable Sunbird (Cinnyris venustus) - 10 files

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BirdLife International

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BirdLife International Species Factsheet.

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