Pemba sunbird
species of bird
The Pemba sunbird (Cinnyris pembae) is a species of bird in the sunbird family. It is endemic to Pemba Island, Tanzania.
Taxonomy
Anton Reichenow first described the Pemba sunbird in 1905.
The taxonomy of the Pemba sunbird has been the subject of debate. Pakenham regarded it as a subspecies of the purple-banded sunbird under the name Cinnyris bifasciatus pembae. It is also sometimes regarded as conspecific with the violet-breasted sunbird, Cinnyris chalcomelas, which lives on the mainland in Kenya. Cinnyris pembae is distinguished from these closely related species by being the only purple-banded sunbird on Pemba Island. It is also significantly smaller than its fellow sunbirds. Hermann Grote regarded the Pemba sunbird to be identical in coloration, but about half the size, of Cinnyris voeltzkowi (today recognized as a subspecies of the Malagasy green sunbird, Cinnyris notatus).
Description
Males have a wingspan of 51.5-53 mm, while females have a wingspan of 47.5-50 mm.
“Pemba sunbird” enters the record as species of bird. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Pemba, sunbird and species can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Pemba sunbird” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Pemba, sunbird and species provides the most credible route into that argument.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1923360. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1905.
Scientific names, classifications and consensus can change while older terminology persists in catalogues and historical literature. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pemba sunbird” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.