Cinnyris sovimanga
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%
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:
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ankarafantsika National Park | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | |
| 2 | Mantadia National Park | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | |
| 3 | Ranomafana National Park | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | |
| 4 | Montagne d'Ambre National Park | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | |
| 5 | Berenty Reserve | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | |
| 6 | Ankarana National Park | 🇲🇬 Madagascar |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Antananarivo | 🇲🇬 Madagascar |
Likely
About 60% of wildlife watchers report a Souimanga Sunbird sighting in Montagne d'Ambre National Park on a given day, based on 27 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the most-seen of the 30 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 90%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
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 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
4th of 6
Of the 6 parks where we can rate Souimanga Sunbird sightings, Montagne d'Ambre National Park ranks 4th at about 60%. The best odds are in Ankarafantsika National Park (Madagascar, about 80%), Mantadia National Park (Madagascar, about 80%) and Ranomafana National Park (Madagascar, about 70%). All parks ranked.
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Souimanga Sunbird that you can see in Montagne d'Ambre National Park (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Madagascar Bulbul (about 60%), Amber Mountain Rock-Thrush (about 50%) and Madagascar White-eye (about 50%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Souimanga Sunbird is recorded against all the birds logged in Montagne d'Ambre National Park (27 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
