Purple-rumped Sunbird

Purple-rumped Sunbird

Leptocoma zeylonica

Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic

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

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

93 Verified sightings at Puducherry
5,099 In all 14 parks From 2019 to 2026
February Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the Purple-rumped Sunbird

The purple-rumped sunbird (Leptocoma zeylonica) is a sunbird endemic to the Indian Subcontinent. Like other sunbirds, they are small in size, feeding mainly on nectar but sometimes take insects, particularly when feeding young. They can hover for short durations but usually perch to lap nectar from flowers. They build a hanging pouch nest made up of cobwebs, lichens and plant material. Males are contrastingly coloured but females are olive above and yellow to buff below. Males are easily distinguished from the purple sunbird by the light coloured underside while females can be told apart from males by their whitish throats.

Purple-rumped sunbirds are tiny, at less than 10 centimetres (4 in) long. They have medium-length thin down-curved bills and brush-tipped tubular tongues, both adaptations for nectar feeding. Purple-rumped sunbirds are sexually dimorphic. The males have a dark maroon upperside with a blue-green crown that glistens at some angles, bright green shoulder patch and violet/purple rump patch which is generally hidden under the wings. The underparts are whitish with dark throat, maroon breast band and purple/violet patch in the throat which is visible... Wikipedia →

Sounds

Call0:29

India · 2021

© Sreekumar Chirukandoth · XC697551 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Song0:50

India · 2011

© Rajgopal Patil · XC569655 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Call0:33

Sri Lanka · 2021

© THILANKA EDIRISINGHE · XC648948 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Yala National Park 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka
~60%
2 Udawalawe National Park 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka
~60%
3 Minneriya National Park 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka
~50%
4 Sinharaja Forest Reserve 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka
~50%
5 Bandipur National Park 🇮🇳 India
~40%
6 Nagarhole National Park 🇮🇳 India
~40%
7 Wilpattu National Park 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka
~30%
8 Mudumalai National Park 🇮🇳 India
~30%
9 Sundarbans National Park 🇮🇳 India
~30%
10 Periyar National Park 🇮🇳 India
~10%
11 Satpura National Park 🇮🇳 India
~10%
12 Horton Plains National Park 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka
~10%
13 Eravikulam National Park 🇮🇳 India
~10%
14 Kanha National Park 🇮🇳 India
<5%

Cities Where Found

# City Country Daily sighting probability
1 Bengaluru 🇮🇳 India
~70%
2 Mysuru 🇮🇳 India
~70%
3 Madurai 🇮🇳 India
~70%
4 Thrissur 🇮🇳 India
~70%
5 Vijayawada 🇮🇳 India
~60%
6 Kalyan-Dombivli 🇮🇳 India
~60%
7 Thiruvananthapuram 🇮🇳 India
~60%
8 Bhubaneshwar 🇮🇳 India
~60%
9 Mumbai 🇮🇳 India
~50%
10 Colombo [Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte] 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka
~50%

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Purple-rumped Sunbird in Puducherry?

Likely

About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Purple-rumped Sunbird sighting in Puducherry on a given day, based on 93 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 13th most-seen of the 83 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 Purple-rumped Sunbird in Puducherry?

February

In that month about 60% of wildlife watchers report a Purple-rumped Sunbird in Puducherry on a given day, against about 30% in June to August, the lowest months. That is one of Puducherry's driest months, with about 10 mm of rain against 270 mm in November.

What time of day is best to see a Purple-rumped Sunbird?

Between 7 and 10 am

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Purple-rumped 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 Puducherry the best place to see a Purple-rumped Sunbird?

24th of 45

Of the 45 cities where we can rate Purple-rumped Sunbird sightings, Puducherry ranks 24th at about 40%. The best odds are in Bengaluru (India, about 70%), Mysuru (India, about 70%) and Madurai (India, about 70%).

Which relatives of the Purple-rumped Sunbird live in Puducherry?

Same family: Nectariniidae

The closest relatives of the Purple-rumped Sunbird that you can see in Puducherry (family Nectariniidae, Sunbirds and Spiderhunters) are Purple Sunbird (about 30%) and Long-billed Sunbird (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.

Where does the Purple-rumped Sunbird sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Purple-rumped Sunbird is recorded against all the birds logged in Puducherry (93 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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