Nectarinia

Nectarinia
Tacazze sunbird (Nectarinia tacazze)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Nectariniidae
Genus:	Nectarinia Illiger, 1811
Type species
Certhia famosa [1] Linnaeus, 1766
Species
See text

Nectarinia is a genus of birds in the sunbird family, Nectariniidae. What species belong to it has been highly contentious for many decades. Towards the late 20th century, the dominant trend was to use it to group all "typical" sunbirds. More recently taxonomists have divided the Nectarinia into eight genera which are now considered distinct from Nectarinia: Leptocoma, Anabathmis, Chalcomitra, Cinnyris, Cyanomitra, Dreptes, Anthobaphes, and Drepanorhynchus .

Taxonomy

The genus Nectarinia was introduced in 1811 by the German zoologist Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger. ^[2] The type species was designated as Certhia famosa Linnaeus, 1766 by George Gray in 1840. ^{[3] [4]}

Species

The genus now contains six species: ^[5]

Image	Common name	Scientific name	Distribution
	Bocage's sunbird	Nectarinia bocagii	Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
	Purple-breasted sunbird	Nectarinia purpureiventris	Albertine Rift montane forests
	Tacazze sunbird	Nectarinia tacazze	Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.
	Bronze sunbird	Nectarinia kilimensis	Angola, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia
	Malachite sunbird	Nectarinia famosa	Ethiopia southwards to South Africa
	Scarlet-tufted sunbird	Nectarinia johnstoni	Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

References

1. "Nectariniidae". aviansystematics.org. The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 2023-07-16.
2. Illiger, Johann Karl Wilhelm (1811). Prodromus systematis mammalium et avium (in Latin). Berolini [Berlin]: Sumptibus C. Salfeld. p. 210.
3. Gray, George Robert (1840). A List of the Genera of Birds : with an Indication of the Typical Species of Each Genus. London: R. and J.E. Taylor. p. 12.
4. Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, ed. (1986). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 12. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 222.
5. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (August 2024). "Dippers, leafbirds, flowerpeckers, sunbirds". IOC World Bird List Version 14.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 30 December 2024.