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Jewels of the African Sky

By Awake! correspondent in Kenya

THE African savanna is dry and brown, baked hard by the intense equatorial sun. We push our way through the hooked barbs of the wait-a-bit trees and thorny scrub.

Suddenly we come to an abrupt halt. Our attention has been arrested by a flash of iridescent color. Coming to rest on a flowering acacia limb is a small bird that is so brightly colored that it is as if the sun itself were tucked within its tiny feathers. This winged gem is appropriately called a sunbird.

Metallic Mirrors

There are over one hundred species of sunbirds. Most are located in tropical Africa, but they can also be found in Asia, Australia, and even the Pacific islands. As beautiful as they are varied, sunbirds reflect the sun like tiny metallic mirrors, displaying a rainbow of radiant colors: iridescent reds, yellows, blues, and greens as well as shades of copper.

Sunbirds usually invite comparison with American hummingbirds. Like hummingbirds, they are exquisitely colored and are nectar feeders. However, they are larger than hummingbirds and lack the flying skill of their North American counterparts.

Generally, the sunbird extracts its nectar by perching right on a blossom and using its long, curved beak to reach deep inside the throat of blooms. But if a tubular-shaped flower is too long for its reach, the sunbird may pierce the flower base and drain it of its precious contents. They also feed on insects that they pick off flowers and nearby foliage.

The males are also accomplished singers. Their repertoire varies from the thin metallic tssp of the superb sunbird to the beautiful tsik-tsik-tsik-tsik-tsit tree-tree-turrrr uttered by the scarlet-tufted malachite sunbird of East Africa. Often it is their song that indicates their presence in thick bush. However, once they are spotted, they are quite noticeable in the dry, brown background of the African veld.

Diligent but Not Dazzling

While the male sunbird is a delight to see and hear, the female is smaller and rather dull in color. She is therefore often ignored by bird-watchers and photographers. In fact, she is usually noticed only when she is in the company of a male. But what the female lacks in color, she certainly makes up for in diligence.

It is the female who ordinarily builds the nest and does most of the actual work of rearing the brood. While she occupies herself with the nesting chores, the male stands watch, prepared to expel intruders from the nesting site.

Hanging Nests

Sunbird nests are hardly things of beauty, though. They often look like little more than bits of rubbish that have been collected by a passing wind and snagged on an acacia thorn. Resembling a hanging, dewdrop-shaped sock, a sunbird nest is made of plant fiber woven or matted together and bound with spider webs. The outside of the nest is cleverly decorated with tiny twigs, dead leaves, bits of lichen, and often a dangling seedpod or two for good measure.

Inside, the nest is lined with plant down, soft grass, feathers, and other delicate material. The entrance is a small hole on one side, near the top. The female often incubates alone. As she sits inside her pear-shaped nest, her long, curved beak can usually be seen protruding from the nest hole. She lays one or two eggs, which will hatch in about 14 days. When the young leave the nest, they are always plain in color like their mother. However, as the males start to mature, they begin to develop the glorious plumage that will one day distinguish them as birds of the sun.

The sunbird is just another example of the richness and diversity of an intelligent Designer. Their beauty of color and instinctive behavior move us to greater appreciation of their Creator. Sunbirds are thus among those whom the Bible commands: “Praise Jehovah from the earth, . . . you creeping things and winged birds.” “Every breathing thing—let it praise Jah.” (Psalm 148:7, 10; 150:6) These jewels of the African sky should move all of us to praise the loving Creator who designed them.