Cinnyris lotenius
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
Loten's sunbird (Cinnyris lotenius), also known as the long-billed sunbird or maroon-breasted sunbird, is a sunbird endemic to peninsular India and Sri Lanka. Named after Joan Gideon Loten, who was the Dutch governor of colonial Ceylon, it is very similar to the purple sunbird that is found in the same areas and also tends to hover at flowers for nectar, but can be distinguished by the longer bill, the maroon band on the breast and brownish wings. Like other sunbirds, it is also insectivorous and builds characteristic hanging nests.
Loten's sunbirds are small, only 12–13 cm long. The long bill separates this from the syntopic purple sunbird. The wings are browner and the maroon breast band is visible on the male under good lighting conditions. The males have pectoral tufts of yellow mixed with crimson that are used in displays. The adult male is mainly glossy purple with a grey-brown belly. The female has yellow-grey upperparts and yellowish underparts, but lacks the purple's faint supercilium. The call is distinctive buzzy zwick zwick and they are also very active often bobbing their head while foraging. They long down-curved bills and brush-tipped tubular tongues... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Minneriya National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 2 | Periyar National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Udawalawe National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 4 | Yala National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 5 | Wilpattu National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 6 | Mudumalai National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Horton Plains National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 8 | Nagarhole National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Sinharaja Forest Reserve | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 10 | Bandipur National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 11 | Sundarbans National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 12 | Eravikulam National Park | 🇮🇳 India |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Colombo [Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte] | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 2 | Kollam | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Kozhikode | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Kochi | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Puducherry | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Thrissur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Ponnani | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Colachel | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Thiruvananthapuram | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Bhubaneshwar | 🇮🇳 India |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Long-billed Sunbird sighting in Sinharaja Forest Reserve on a given day, based on 129 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 84th most-seen of the 156 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Long-billed Sunbird in Sinharaja Forest Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in April, July and October, the lowest months. That is one of Sinharaja Forest Reserve's wettest months, with about 460 mm of rain against 150 mm in March.
Between 3 and 6 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Long-billed Sunbird sightings with a recorded time, and about 6 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
9th of 12
Of the 12 parks where we can rate Long-billed Sunbird sightings, Sinharaja Forest Reserve ranks 9th at about 10%. The best odds are in Minneriya National Park (Sri Lanka, about 30%), Periyar National Park (India, about 20%) and Udawalawe National Park (Sri Lanka, about 20%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Long-billed Sunbird is recorded against all the birds logged in Sinharaja Forest Reserve (129 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.
