Souimanga Sunbird

Souimanga Sunbird

Cinnyris sovimanga

Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic

LCLeast ConcernNTVUENCR
Daily sighting probability ~20% · Possible
at Antananarivo

In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%

209 Verified sightings at Antananarivo
1,970 In all 4 parks From 2019 to 2026
February Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the Souimanga Sunbird

The souimanga sunbird (Cinnyris sovimanga) is a small passerine bird of the sunbird family, Nectariniidae. It is native to the islands of the western Indian Ocean where it occurs on Madagascar, the Aldabra Group and the Glorioso Islands.

The souimanga sunbird was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the tree-creepers in the genus Certhia and coined the binomial name Certhia sovimanga. The specific epithet sovimanga comes from a French name for the bird, Souï-manga. Gmelin based his account on "Le grimpereau violet de Madagascar" that had been described and illustrated in 1760 by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson and Le Soui-Manga that had been described in 1778 by the Comte de Buffon. The souimanga sunbird is now placed in the large genus Cinnyris that was introduced in 1816 by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier.

Five subspecies are recognised: Wikipedia →

Sounds

Song0:11

Madagascar · 2025

© Frank Lambert · XC1065591 · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Call0:16

Madagascar · 2024

© Francesco Barberini · XC934817 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Call0:30

Madagascar · 2012

© Peter Boesman · XC762655 · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Ankarafantsika National Park 🇲🇬 Madagascar
~80%
2 Mantadia National Park 🇲🇬 Madagascar
~80%
3 Ranomafana National Park 🇲🇬 Madagascar
~70%
4 Berenty Reserve 🇲🇬 Madagascar
~60%

Cities Where Found

# City Country Daily sighting probability
1 Antananarivo 🇲🇬 Madagascar
~20%

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Souimanga Sunbird in Antananarivo?

Possible

About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Souimanga Sunbird sighting in Antananarivo on a given day, based on 209 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 33rd most-seen of the 69 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.

When is the best time to see a Souimanga Sunbird in Antananarivo?

February

In that month about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Souimanga Sunbird in Antananarivo on a given day, against about 10% in November and December, the lowest months. That is one of Antananarivo's wettest months, with about 380 mm of rain against 45 mm in September.

What time of day is best to see a Souimanga Sunbird?

Between 6 and 9 am

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Souimanga Sunbird sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.

Where else can you see a Souimanga Sunbird?

Only Antananarivo, in our data

Antananarivo is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Souimanga Sunbird sightings: about 20% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.

Where does the Souimanga Sunbird sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Souimanga Sunbird is recorded against all the birds logged in Antananarivo (209 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.

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