SMAP 244 - It's All In The Neck

Hello Feathered Friends Community. Welcome back to the Show Me A Photo or SMAP Contest hosted by @nelinoeva. This is Round 244 and I hope by now you have heard about this super fun contest. The link to the contest post is here. Do read up if you still haven't heard or joined this contest yet. It's fun.

The theme for this week is:

MALE BIRDS

I have in the past posted about Olivia, the olive back sun bird, who would visit our garden every morning, especially when I water the plants, zooming in and out, up and under the spray of water from the hose. After months of regularly visiting Olivia stopped and I thought maybe she passed away. Recently, another sunbird has been coming to the garden. Definitely not Olivia as it flies off when I come near, still it stays longer in the garden than the sparrows and red munias and sometimes the fan tailed Philippine bird.

I found out the sunbird is very particular to the nectar of the purple bell flower and is often seen enjoying its presumably delicious liquid.

Since the theme for this week is Male Birds, how is the Olive Back Sun Bird Male differentiated from the female. Well, the difference can be seen in the neck. Whereas the female sun bird has a full yellow plume from the throat down to the belly (see photo below),

the male sun bird has a bright blue bib on his throat, making it look like it has a hoodie, then yellow again down to the belly.

Actually, from the back, both female and male look exactly alike. Only when one sees the front that the male can be distinguished. Here's a male sun bird perched on an electrical wire. The blue collar is a bit perceptible from this angle.

There, you have it. My entry to this Round is the photo below.

Hope you enjoyed this post as much as I did making it. Good luck to all participants.

(All photos are mine.)