...and look what came in to sit on a high tree in the sun.
I got him on camera at a very special time in their lives. It is called the breeding session, and Romeo was dressed in his mating suit.
It is a male Southern Double-collared Sunbird (Cinnyris chalybeus), and he was announcing his intentions loudly in song. Now how do I know that he was dressed in his mating suit? Simple, the yellow epaulets on his shoulders were very prominent. Out of the mating season the yellow epaulets remain hidden. We have watched him grow up as he flitted through our garden when his colors were patchy and his singing was at a progressive stage. At first some single notes, as a youngster, and then one day he just started to sing his full tinkling song.
Let's see if Wikipedia agrees with me about the yellow epaulets.
The southern double-collared sunbird is 12 cm long. The adult male has a glossy, metallic green head, throat, upper breast and back. It has a brilliant red band across the chest, separated from the green breast by a narrow metallic blue band. The rest of the underparts are whitish. When displaying, yellow feather tufts can be seen on the shoulders. As with other sunbirds the bill is long and decurved. The bill, legs and feet are black. The eye is dark brown. The male can be distinguished from the similar greater double-collared sunbird by its smaller size, narrower red chest band and shorter bill.
And so, I am right as the bold section above talks about displaying the yellow tufts, and they only display them when they want to mate.
I will tell you the rest of the story with the captions above the pictures. In the photo below the little guy took a step backwards.
And then he let rip with a full-throated song of love. Now how can a female ignore a declaration of love such as this?
Easy, as she was trying the hard-to-get trick, as that is what the females in nature do as a part of the mating game. Many females also do this in life.
I think she was playing hide-and-seek.
Now let me show you their nesting place, I think you can see that this is a lemon and I tried to get the raindrops on it, but I was not very successful.
Here I had better luck with the drops on the green lemon.
And finally, that is the small lemon tree that they build their nest in. I have shown you the nest in the past and also the babies, and this time I will try to do it again.
We have a coffee shop very close by, and it is at this coffee shop where the little tree is situated. Across from the lemon tree there's a table and two chairs and we often sit at the table with some coffee for me to spend some time watching the tree, especially once they have started their breeding session. One can watch how they build the nest and how they flit in and out at speed from the nest. They know that the nest is covered by the lemon tree's thorns, and so no cat or other predator will climb up into that tree. That's bird wisdom for you.
A bonus is that there is also an organisation that works with disabled children on the same property, and Papillon also supports the organisation. They are also an NPO (Non-profit organisation), the same as Papillon. We are friends with all of the staff members, and they do fantastic work with the little ones, as the staff are all professionals with real hearts for the children. That is why we so like to come to this coffee shop.
Such is life.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story.
Photos by Zac Smith. All-Rights-Reserved.
Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.
Until next time, cheers!