White-breasted Sunbird

White-breasted Sunbird

Cinnyris talatala

Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic

LCLeast ConcernNTVUENCR
Daily sighting probability ~40% · Likely
at Pretoria

In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%

389 Verified sightings at Pretoria
4,997 In all 17 parks From 2019 to 2026
April Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the White-breasted Sunbird

The white-bellied sunbird (Cinnyris talatala), also known as the white-breasted sunbird, is a species of bird in the family Nectariniidae. It is found in Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Occurs from Angola to southern Tanzania south to southern Africa, where it is common to locally abundant across northern Namibia, northern and south-eastern Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Eswatini and north-eastern South Africa. It generally prefers semi-arid savanna woodland, such as Acacia, bushwillow (Combretum) and riparian thickets, Zambezi teak (Baikiaea plurijuga) and mixed miombo (Brachystegia) woodland.

It mainly eats nectar supplemented with arthropods, often joining mixed-species foraging flocks in the day, along with other sunbirds at large sources of nectar. In the late afternoon it regularly hawks insects aerially and gleans invertebrates from foliage.

The following food items have been recorded in its diet: * Arthropods insects aphids ants grasshoppers (Orthoptera) moths (Lepidoptera) spiders The nest (see image... Wikipedia →

Sounds

Call0:23

South Africa · 2026

© JJSUN · XC1080051 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Song1:13

South Africa · 2025

© Bobby Wilcox · XC1038568 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Subsong0:37

South Africa · 2020

© Nature Sounds by Simply Birding · XC575172 · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 uMkhuze Game Reserve 🇿🇦 South Africa
~60%
2 Gonarezhou National Park 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe
~50%
3 Waterberg Plateau Park 🇳🇦 Namibia
~50%
4 Kruger National Park 🇿🇦 South Africa
~30%
5 Mana Pools National Park 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe
~30%
6 Lower Zambezi National Park 🇿🇲 Zambia
~20%
7 Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park 🇿🇦 South Africa
~20%
8 Pilanesberg National Park 🇿🇦 South Africa
~20%
9 Etosha National Park 🇳🇦 Namibia
~20%
10 Chobe National Park 🇧🇼 Botswana
~20%
11 Kafue National Park 🇿🇲 Zambia
~20%
12 South Luangwa National Park 🇿🇲 Zambia
~10%
13 Hwange National Park 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe
~10%
14 Moremi Game Reserve 🇧🇼 Botswana
~10%
15 Liwonde National Park 🇲🇼 Malawi
~10%
16 iSimangaliso Wetland Park 🇿🇦 South Africa
<5%
17 Gorongosa National Park 🇲🇿 Mozambique
<5%

Cities Where Found

# City Country Daily sighting probability
1 Pretoria 🇿🇦 South Africa
~40%
2 Johannesburg 🇿🇦 South Africa
~30%
3 Durban 🇿🇦 South Africa
~20%
4 Maputo 🇲🇿 Mozambique
~10%
5 Harare 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe
~10%
6 Lusaka 🇿🇲 Zambia
~10%

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a White-breasted Sunbird in Pretoria?

Likely

About 40% of wildlife watchers report a White-breasted Sunbird sighting in Pretoria on a given day, based on 389 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 15th most-seen of the 177 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.

When is the best time to see a White-breasted Sunbird in Pretoria?

April–May, July and November

In those months about 50% of wildlife watchers report a White-breasted Sunbird in Pretoria on a given day, against about 20% in January, the lowest month.

What time of day is best to see a White-breasted Sunbird?

Between 10 am and 1 pm

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most White-breasted Sunbird sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.

Is Pretoria the best place to see a White-breasted Sunbird?

Yes

Of the 6 cities where we can rate White-breasted Sunbird sightings, Pretoria has the highest daily chance: about 40%. Next come Johannesburg (South Africa, about 30%) and Durban (South Africa, about 20%).

Where does the White-breasted Sunbird sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the White-breasted Sunbird is recorded against all the birds logged in Pretoria (389 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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