Profile
In flight
Songbirds
Fire-tailed Sunbird
Aethopyga ignicauda
- rare
- 42 km/h
- Least Concern
Himalayan nectar-feeder with a tail like a lit fuse. Scarlet and yellow male blazes through mountain mist above 3,000m.
- Population
- Number of mature individuals unknown/not quantified; population trend stable; described as very common at higher altitudes
- Habitat
- Subtropical/tropical moist montane forest and high-altitude shrubland, including rhododendron thickets and conifer forest up to ~4,000 m; descends to broadleaved forest at lower elevation in winter
- Fun fact
- Breeding male Fire-tailed Sunbirds grow an extravagant elongated scarlet tail that can make up nearly half their total ~15 cm length, and both parents cooperate to feed chicks in nests built within rhododendron shrubs.
- Range
- Himalayas and adjoining Southeast Asia: Bangladesh, Bhutan, China (Tibet/mainland), India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Thailand; resident, not migratory
- Diet
- Nectar and insects (opportunistic forager)
- Size
- 0.15 m
