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Bird

Purple Sunbird

Cinnyris asiaticus

हिन्दी: बैंगनी शक्करखोरा

IUCN: Least Concern
Purple Sunbird (Cinnyris asiaticus) photographed by Devendra Bhardwaj

Image: Devendra Bhardwaj · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0 · Bandra, Rajasthan · Resized

Purple Sunbird (Cinnyris asiaticus) photographed by Devendra Bhardwaj

Image: Devendra Bhardwaj · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0 · Ghati Karolan, Jaipur, Rajasthan · Resized

Scientific name
Cinnyris asiaticus
Hindi name
बैंगनी शक्करखोरा
Family
Nectariniidae, order Passeriformes
Group
Bird
Conservation status
Least Concern

A tiny jewel that sips flowers like a hummingbird.

  • Spot it Glossy purple-blue male, olive-yellow female and a curved bill.
  • Home Gardens, scrub and open woodland.
  • Food web Drinks nectar, eats small insects, and carries pollen.
  • Why it matters Carries pollen from flower to flower as it feeds, raising fruit and seed set, and eats small insects too.

Read more: Purple sunbird on Wikipedia

Sources and credits

Records and field notes

  • RajasthanDevendra Bhardwaj has 5 verified records of this species on iNaturalist, between 2014 and 2026, in Jaipur and Bandra.[20]

Sources

  1. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (species pages linked on each entry) (database). Global conservation status. Every species page was opened.
  2. Devendra Bhardwaj. iNaturalist observations and notes, with place and date (inaturalist.org/people/devendrabhardwaj) (field record). The observer's own dated records and notes, with places. Statements in his notes are his own and were not independently checked by KJVF.
  3. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF species data (family, order, Hindi names, IUCN category) (database). Open biodiversity data. Used for classification, Hindi common names and the IUCN category where one is given.
  4. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (opening lines of each species article, CC BY-SA 4.0). The link on each entry goes to the article (reference). Not peer reviewed. Only the opening description is used, and statements about origin or medicinal use are left out.
  5. Short introductions and key points written with AI help (Google Gemini and Claude) and checked against GBIF where possible (reference). AI-assisted text for general readers. Please check important details before relying on them.

The tag before each record shows the place it was checked for.

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