Sunbirds & Spiderhunters

Sunbirds do much to make up for the lack of hummingbirds in the Old World. With their brilliant iridescence and saturated colors, these lightly proportioned songbirds with thin, decurved bills do sometimes hover in front of nectar-bearing flowers, though never with the maneuverability and stability of hummingbirds. Many species defend nectar resources against others, but most are monogamous and territorial in the breeding season. Spiderhunters on the other hand are much less likely to be territorial and are often trap-liners, flying swiftly in direct lines from one nectar source to another through the dense Asian undergrowth. Spiderhunters do eat a lot of spiders and insects, but so do sunbirds, and the two groups actually differ very little in overall diet.