The southern double-collared sunbird is a small nectar-feeding bird endemic to southern Africa. The male is glossy metallic green with a brilliant red breast band separated from the green upper breast by a narrow metallic-blue band, and shows yellow shoulder tufts when breeding. Using a short, down-curved bill, it is a key pollinator of tubular flowers — ericas, aloes, leucospermums, and Leonotis among them — feeding mainly on nectar but also taking insects, especially when raising chicks. It adapts readily to suburban gardens planted with indigenous flowering species and is a common, ecologically important garden visitor across the Cape.

Nectar plants · 5

Endemic to southern Africa; core range centred on South Africa's Western Cape, extending east through the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal and north to Mpumalanga and Limpopo, with the far south of Namibia at the range margin. Occurs across fynbos, Karoo shrubland, coastal scrub, Afromontane forest, and suburban gardens.