Yes, it is now winter here in South Africa, and the trees and vines are also resting.
But of course, the winter also has new life appearing, such as the young Malachite sunbirds.
We often visit the wine farm, and I especially search for the young sunbirds, as they were born in the late winter season last year. The summer gives them enough time to grow enough, so that they can endure their first winter. The males are also now searching for wives, so that their babies can be born during the last part of the winter this year. Now they will repeat the cycle and at winter next year, we will see the new ones replicating the cycle. Amazing how they can do this on instinct, but then again, nature has many such incidents.
You can see that the male is dressed in his breeding suit. This is a Malachite Sunbird (Nectarinia Famosa).
By now, some of my regular readers will know that I love the Malachites, but for those that do not know the Malachites, a quick explanation.
The malachite sunbird (Nectarinia famosa) is a small nectarivorous bird found from the highlands of Ethiopia southwards to South Africa. They pollinate many flowering plants, particularly those with long corolla tubes, in the Fynbos.
The sunbirds are a group of small Old World passerine birds, and are placed within the family Nectariniidae, which is found across Africa, the Middle East and into South-east Asia. Also called green sugarbird.
The malachite sunbird has two subspecies. The nominate N. f. famosa occurs mainly in South Africa, Lesotho and western Eswatini, although its range just extends into southern Namibia and Zimbabwe. N. f. cupreonitens breeds in the highlands from Ethiopia south to northern Mozambique.
Now look carefully and you will see how the male at the bottom is eyeing the girl above :)
I wonder if mankind was also programmed to only pair in winter what would happen. Everyone's babies will be born during the winter months and the toy and baby shops will riot, as the rest of the year they will have no business. Just one of my weird thoughts and I hope that some chip happy scientist won't read this, as then he could get the idea for chip implants to control human populations. I like to have fun in my posts and sometimes I even get a smile.
In the meantime, I have taken shots of another scoop and here below is a teaser to show you what I will post soon.
For now, I say adios and I hope that you enjoyed the pictures.
Photos by Zac Smith-All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.
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