Cinnyris pulchellus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
The beautiful sunbird (Cinnyris pulchellus), formerly placed in the genus Nectarinia, is a small passerine bird in the sunbird family Nectariniidae. It is native to tropical Africa, its range extending from Senegal and Guinea in the west to Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Kenya in the east. It was formerly considered to be conspecific with the gorgeous sunbird (Cinnyris melanogastrus).
The beautiful sunbird was formally described in 1766 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the twelfth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Certhia pulchella. Linnaeus based his account on "Le grimpereau à longue queue du Sénégal" that had been described and illustrated in 1760 by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson. The specific epithet is from Latin pulchellum meaning "very pretty" or "beautiful little". Formerly placed in the genus Nectarinia, the beautiful sunbird is now one of 64 sunbirds placed in the genus Cinnyris that was introduced in 1816 by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier. It was previously considered to be conspecific with the gorgeous sunbird (Cinnyris melanogastrus) but the species were split based on the differences in morphology...
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Niokolo-Koba National Park | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 2 | Mole National Park | 🇬🇭 Ghana | |
| 3 | Awash National Park | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia | |
| 4 | Ruaha National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 5 | Amboseli National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 6 | Serengeti National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 7 | Tarangire National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 8 | Saloum Delta National Park | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 9 | Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 10 | Ngorongoro Conservation Area | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 11 | Murchison Falls National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 12 | Lake Manyara National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 13 | Mkomazi National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 14 | Kidepo Valley National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 15 | Tsavo West National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 16 | Arusha National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 17 | Nairobi National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 18 | Masai Mara National Reserve | 🇰🇪 Kenya |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ouagadougou | 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso | |
| 2 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia | |
| 3 | Maiduguri | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 4 | N'Djamena | 🇹🇩 Chad | |
| 5 | Dakar | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 6 | Kampala | 🇺🇬 Uganda |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bronx Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Beautiful Sunbird sighting in Saloum Delta National Park on a given day, based on 6 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 60th most-seen of the 70 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.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Beautiful 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.
8th of 18
Of the 18 parks where we can rate Beautiful Sunbird sightings, Saloum Delta National Park ranks 8th at about 20%. The best odds are in Niokolo-Koba National Park (Senegal, about 60%), Mole National Park (Ghana, about 50%) and Awash National Park (Ethiopia, about 40%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Beautiful Sunbird is recorded against all the birds logged in Saloum Delta National Park (6 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.
