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Aethopyga christinae

The Fork tailed sunbird.

The adult male fork-tailed sunbird, Aethopyga christinae, is a wonderfully colourful character that I often see zipping around in bushes and trees, on flowers, foraging on nectar.

They can do this as they have a special brush-tipped tubular tongue that they use to absorb nectar in flowers, which is similar to the tubular tongue of the hummingbirds. To help with this these lovely sunbirds have a sharp decurved bill for foraging from flowers with deep nectaries.

These little birds have also been known to feed on insects and spiders, especially when

rearing young.

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Sorry, but links do not seem to work in this format, so please cut and paste this into your browser: https://www.facebook.com/wildcreatureshongkong/ For blogs in Chinese, search for "香港野 hong kong wildcreatures" Please also see www.wildcreatureshongkong.info for ID and animal information, and www.hongkongsnakeid.com for snakes.

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