The Usambara double-collared sunbird (''Cinnyris usambaricus'') is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of bird in the family

Nectariniidae Sunbirds and spiderhunters make up the family Nectariniidae of passerine birds. They are small, slender passerines from the Old World, usually with downward-curved bills. Many are brightly coloured, often with iridescent feathers, particularly i ...

. It is a resident breeder in the tropical moist

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

s of southeast Kenya and

Tanga Region Tanga Region () is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions of Tanzania, regions. The region covers an area of . The region is comparable in size to the combined land area of the nation state of Burundi. The regional capital is the municipalit ...

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

Taxonomy

The Usambara double-collared sunbird was described as a subspecies of the eastern double-collared sunbird by the German ornithologist

Hermann Grote Hermann Grote (7 July 1882 – 12 August 1951) was a German ornithologist known for his studies of African avifauna. While serving as a director of a sisal plantation in German East Africa, he published papers on the local avifauna (from 1909 to ...

in 1922 and given the

trinomial name In biology, trinomial nomenclature is the system of names for taxa below the rank of species. These names have three parts. The usage is different in zoology and botany. In zoology In zoological nomenclature, a trinomen (), trinominal name, or t ...

''Cinnyris mediocris usambaricus''. He description was based on specimens collected in the

Usambara Mountains The Usambara Mountains of northeastern Tanzania in tropical East Africa, comprise the easternmost ranges of the Eastern Arc Mountains. The ranges are approximately long and about half that wide, and they are situated in the Lushoto District ...

of Tanzania. It was promoted to species status based on differences in plumage and genetics. The species is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

References

Usambara double-collared sunbird Usambara double-collared sunbird Usambara double-collared sunbird Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Nectariniidae-stub