54. Scarlet-chested Sunbird This is an extremely handsome bird and it knows it: an iridescent green cap and throat, and a breast and chest of the most scarlet scarlet you can imagine. Quite large for a sunbird, it has long and sharply de-curved bill. Once you notice it, the subtle difference in sunbird bill shapes is obvious: longer or thinner, more or less curved. Sunbirds are quite like the hummingbirds of the Americas, though hummingbirds are mostly smaller and perhaps more varied in shapes and sizes. Some of them have developed perilously exclusive relationships with particular plants, so that they are the only bird to pollinate that flower, which is the only flower from which they can feed. One American example is the extraordinary Sword-billed Hummingbird, a tiny creature with a bill that is longer than the rest of its body. It needs that to get nectar from one particular kind of flower which has developed a very long flower that secretes its nectar at the very bottom. The Sword-bill can do the business, however, though it is unable, with its enormous bill, to use it to preen its own feathers. It has had to learn to comb itself with its foot. Birds of AFRICAMA House 113