As a fairly large sunbird, the Malachite Sunbird is no exception.

The bird that seems to be a pollinator of the plant is the malachite sunbird (Nectarina famosa).

Birds associated with flowering plants of the higher slopes include Gurney's sugarbird and malachite sunbird.

The breeding male Malachite Sunbird, which has very long central tail feathers, is 25 cm long, and the shorter-tailed female 15 cm.

Malachite Sunbird - Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds.

Malachite Sunbird (Nectarinia famosa)

It is also known as the Red-tufted Sunbird and the Scarlet-tufted Malachite Sunbird.

The Malachite Sunbird (Nectarinia famosa) is a small nectivorous bird found in the highlands of Ethiopia and all the way down to South Africa.

The Malachite Sunbird is often double-brooded, but may be parasitised by Klaas's Cuckoo or Red-chested Cuckoo.

The call is a loud tseep-tseep, and the male Malachite Sunbird has a twittering song, often accompanied by pointing its head upward and displaying the yellow pectoral tufts with its wings half open.

Birding: Species of interest include the Bearded Vulture, Alpine Swift, Lanner Falcon, Ground Woodpecker, Grey-winged Francolin, Malachite Sunbird, White-necked Raven, Rock Kestrel and Black Stork.

The reader can almost understand why Ms. Fossey was so eager to abandon everything to live alone with her gorillas, high on this beautiful mountaintop, where "dazzling little birds with names like scarlet-tufted malachite sunbird darted among lichen-bearded branches and drank nectar from showy yellow Hypericum flowers."

Malachite Sunbird (Nectarinia famosa)

The Malachite Sunbird (Nectarinia famosa) is a small nectivorous bird found in the highlands of Ethiopia and all the way down to South Africa.