Sun birds, actually, in my balcony

(The small pile of dirty looking leaves and twigs, a perfectly camflouged nest of the sunbirds, handing from a dried money plant vine in my balcony:)

My student Sabrina pointed out that the birds nesting in my tiny balcony are not tailor birds after all. They are sun birds. Possibly called that for the dash of pale yellow on their breasts. These ones are technically called Purple rumped sunbirds. The female, as with the animal species, is duller, greyish where the male has a dark, blackish attractive overcoat. The nest, over which the two birds have been fussing, has taken over a week now. And they are still at it. My husband made a video of their effort. It was done with his mobile, which explains the quality.(Click on the line, to watch it).

The other day I saw a sparrow, which looked large compared to these tiny fellows, peck harshly on the male seated on my tiny neem tree. The male sun bird was holding a fluffy feather in his curved beak, to line the nest. The sparrow kept pecking till the poor fellow had to drop it. Only then would the sparrow fly off. What wickedness, meaningless too:) Amazing how this world goes... And I remember singing as a child "It is Love, it is love, it is love that makes the world go around.." So innocent, so foolish, then. And now!

The dried Money plant vine is what the sunbirds had chosen, deliberately flimsy and frail so that other wicked ones of the animal kingdom, more keen on things other than the pecking order, could not climb over it. I can imagine snakes, crows loving to gobble up either those eggs or the nestlings. Let's see how it goes. As of now, the female makes foolish forays against my French windows, either imaging another rival female flapping into her, or seeing foliage where none is. So much like humans:)