An adult Spectacled Spiderhunter
spotted near Khao Sok National Park in Surat Thani, on peninsular Thailand,
feeding on the nectar of the flowers of the Flame of the Forest, also known as
the Fountain Tree, using its long, downward-curved bill, that allows this bird
to easily reach the nectar that is buried deep in the tree's large, fluffy,
orange flowers, that grow between eight to fifteen centimeters tall and which
are attractive to a variety of birds, including the Grey-breasted Spiderhunter,
a distant cousin of the former. Spectacled Spiderhunters have olive backs
and brownish wings, with some darker colouring towards the lower back, wing tips
and tail, a blackish, thick, broad-based bill that curves downward, a prominent
yellow ear-patch, and a broad yellow eyering, from where it gets its common name
and that distinguish it from most other spiderhunters. This bird in the family
Nectariniidae is known by the binomial name Arachnothera flavigaster and it
occurs around the equatorial regions of Southeast Asia, including in Borneo,
Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, southern Thailand, and southern Vietnam.
Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and
subtropical or tropical moist montane forest.
回
|