The Streaked Spiderhunter
If you are ever out birding in montane forests in eastern India, and if you are lucky enough to see scores of small birds flitting about in the trees on dainty wings, you can always spot these birds out by their obscenely long beaks.
There are eleven species of spiderhunters in South and Southeastern Asia, and this is one of the two found in India.
Spiderhunters forage all parts of the forest canopy, never veering close to the ground; if you stand long enough, they appear almost squirrel-like as they scuttle and look for small invertebrates.
Plumage
Easily identifiable, with bold black streaking on yellowish-green plumage above and on yellowish-white underparts. Tail greenish with black subterminal band and pale tip. Undertail coverts have black centers with broad, yellowish-white edges.
In adults, the iris appears deep in color and reddish-brown to brownish-red. In juveniles it is duller and washed grayish, slowly becoming dull brownish to reddish brown over the first year. The orbital ring is pale grayish.
Feeding Habits
These birds are pretty important pollinators, hinted at by the fact that they are conventional nectar feeders. In other words, these birds are nectar robbers, or pierce the base of flowers while perching to feed on nectar.In conventional feeding, the bill is inserted into the flower; many of the plants on which the bird uses this technique possess a tubular structure that lends itself to easier feeding by Streaked Spiderhunter.
The average diet also consists of, well, spiders, which these birds have been found to extract from the middle of spider webs with their long curved beaks, giving them their name. Fruits also comprise a part of the diet, but nectar is the primary food source. Birds also have been observed using their long tongue to probe dead tree trunks for insect prey.
Call
Calls include sharp, metallic chirruping chiriririk or chiruk, chirik, also chisikik and chee-chee-chee…; also repeated chittit, chittittitit; annoyance call a soft ug-ug-ug; feeding call a persistent chip; in flight a repeated ka-tik, and a loud musical trill.
Nest
Neat inverted dome or oblong, with one or two entrances (but no tunnel), constructed from leaf skeletons joined together with cobwebs, lined with grass and leaf skeletons, sewn by vegetable down and cobwebs to the underside of a broad leaf, usually of banana but also on the underside of leaf of giant creeper, large ginger (Zingiberaceae), teak (Tectona), thorny creeper, or huge dock (Rumex) leaf; 0.5–2 m above ground. Clutch of 2–3 eggs, brown to olive-brown, darker at the broader end; no information on incubation and nestling periods. Nests parasitized by the Large Hawk-Cuckoo (Hierococcyx sparverioides) , the Indian Cuckoo (Cuculus micropterus), the Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) , and the Lesser Cuckoo (Cuculus poliocephalus).
Happy Birding!