Scientific name: Anthobaphes violacea
As with other sunbirds the bill is long and decurved, that of the male being longer than that of the female. The bill, legs and feet are black. The eye is dark brown.
The head, throat and mantle of the male are bright metallic green. The rest of the upper parts are olive green. The upper breast is metallic violet and the lower breast is bright orange, fading to paler orange and yellow on the belly. The tail is long and blackish, with elongated central tail feathers, which extend some way, belong the other feathers.
The female has olive-greenish grey upperparts and olive yellowish underparts, paler on the belly. The wings and tail is blackish. The juvenile resembles the female.
Endemic to the fynbos biome of the Western and Eastern Cape, South Africa, generally preferring dense stands of Protea and Erica. It also occurs in coastal renosterveld and occasionally gardens, provided that there are enough nectar producing plants such as Aloe.
It eats nectar supplemented with small arthropods, gleaning them from leaves and branches, plucking from the ground and occasionally hawking insects aerially.
