Scarlet-chested sunbird

Scarlet-chested sunbird
	Male and female at Lake Chivero, Zimbabwe
Conservation status
	; Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Nectariniidae
Genus:	Chalcomitra
Species:	C. senegalensis
Binomial name
	Chalcomitra senegalensis; (Linnaeus, 1766)
	range
Synonyms
	Certhia senegalensis Linnaeus, 1766; Nectarinia senegalensis (Linnaeus, 1766);

The scarlet-chested sunbird (Chalcomitra senegalensis) is a species of bird in the family Nectariniidae. It is found in many areas of Sub-Saharan Africa, and from South Sudan to South Africa.^[2]

Range

It is found in Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Ivory Coast, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Description

The scarlet-chested sunbird is similar to Hunter's sunbird in appearance, with adult males having a characteristic red–scarlet coloured breast and an iridescent green patch on top of its head. The female is dark brown with no supercilium. It inhabits woodland and gardens, at elevations of up to 2,400 metres (7,900 ft).^[3] The bird is around 13–15 centimetres (5.1–5.9 in) in length, with males having a weight of 7.5–17.2 grams (0.26–0.61 oz) and females weighing 6.8–15.3 grams (0.24–0.54 oz).^[2]

Taxonomy

Scarlet-chested sunbird song

Song recorded in Northern Transvaal, South Africa

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In 1760, the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the scarlet-chested sunbird in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in Senegal. He used the French name Le grimpereau violet du Sénégal and the Latin Certhia Senegalensis Violacea.^[4] Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.^[5] When the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition in 1766, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson.^[5] One of these was the scarlet-chested sunbird. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Certhia senegalensis and cited Brisson's work.^[6] This species is now placed in the genus Chalcomitra that was introduced by the German naturalist Ludwig Reichenbach in 1853.^[7] Six subspecies are recognised.^[8]

female C. s. lamperti
feeding on Aloe zebrina
in Kenya
male C. s. gutteralis
in Matsapha, Eswatini
female C. s. gutteralis
in Matsapha, Eswatini
fe male C. s. gutteralis
feeding on African tulip tree
in Matsapha, Eswatini

References

^ BirdLife International (2018). "Chalcomitra senegalensis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018: e.T22717770A131979279. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22717770A131979279.en. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
^ ^a ^b "Scarlet-chested Sunbird - Chalcomitra senegalensis - Birds of the World". birdsoftheworld.org. Archived from the original on 15 February 2024. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
^ Nigel Redman; Terry Stevenson; John Fanshawe (2016). Birds of the Horn of Africa: Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, and Socotra (Revised and Expanded ed.). Princeton University Press. p. 372. ISBN 978-0-691-17289-7. Archived from the original on 2024-02-28. Retrieved 2024-02-28.
^ Brisson, Mathurin Jacques (1760). Ornithologie, ou, Méthode contenant la division des oiseaux en ordres, sections, genres, especes & leurs variétés (in French and Latin). Vol. 3. Paris: Jean-Baptiste Bauche. pp. 660–661, Plate 34 fig 2. Archived from the original on 2018-10-13. Retrieved 2018-05-10. The two stars (**) at the start of the section indicates that Brisson based his description on the examination of a specimen.
^ ^a ^b Allen, J.A. (1910). "Collation of Brisson's genera of birds with those of Linnaeus". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 28: 317–335. hdl:2246/678.
^ Linnaeus, Carl (1766). Systema naturae : per regna tria natura, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1, Part 1 (12th ed.). Holmiae (Stockholm): Laurentii Salvii. p. 186. Archived from the original on 2018-10-14. Retrieved 2018-05-10.
^ Reichenbach, Ludwig (1853). Handbuch der Speciellen Ornithologie (in German). Vol. 6. Dresden and Leipzig: Expedition der Vollständigsten Naturgeschichte. p. 277. Archived from the original on 2018-10-14. Retrieved 2018-05-10.
^ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2018). "Dippers, leafbirds, flowerpeckers, sunbirds". World Bird List Version 8.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Archived from the original on 29 November 2020. Retrieved 10 May 2018.