Beautiful Sunbird (Cinnyris pulchellus) [XC728965]
by Alain Malengreau from Road past Amboseli sopa lodge, Amboseli Np, Kenya (call)
Beautiful Sunbird (Cinnyris pulchellus) [XC425473]
by Peter Boesman from Janjanbureh, Janjanbureh, Central River, Gambia (song)
Subspecies
It has been suggested that this species and Black-bellied Sunbird (Cinnyris nectarinioides) link the "Nectarinia mariquensis complex" with the "Nectarinia chalybeus complex".
Proposed subspecies aeger (described from Aïr, in Niger) and lucidipectus (from Wad Medani, on Blue Nile in east-central Sudan) considered inseparable from nominate.
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
pulchellus (Linnaeus, 1766) - Mauritania, Senegal and Guinea-Bissau east to Sudan, Eritrea and western Ethiopia, south to Sierra Leone, central Nigeria, northern Cameroon, Central African Republic, north-eastern DRCongo, Uganda and north-western Kenya.
melanogastrus (Fischer, GA & Reichenow, 1884) - Western, central and southern Kenya and Tanzania. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Gorgeous Sunbird (Cinnyris melanogastrus).