A bight jewel in the seasonal Taiwan Cherry Blossom

A bight jewel in the seasonal Taiwan Cherry Blossom, the fork-tailed sunbird (Aethopyga christinae) is a very small bird, 6-9cm only. Following on from yesterdays blog, now is a great time to see them, in the seasonal flowerings of either the Taiwan Cherry Blossom - as pictured below, and one of the best places for this is Kadoorie Farm - or in the ubiquitous "Flame trees" that can be found around Hong Kong.

These birds have a frequent “zwinkzwink” call and a metallic trill. Residents of Hong Kong, they are common and wide spread. They breed between April and June, eventually forming a ball of grass into a nest up in the trees. They can also be found on the most common postage stamp of Hong Kong. Female is very pretty but quite drab in plumage comparison, here she is below.

Swinhoe's white eyes are also abundant as are the Asian honey bees that fill the air with a loud buzzing...

Whilst I try and get some pictures of the small birds in flight, many times these little birds simply hop, as shown in these photos...

but occasionally I get a nice spread of wings....