Loten's Sunbird - Behaviour and Ecology

Behaviour and Ecology

The species is resident and no seasonal movements are known. While foraging for nectar they hover at flowers a lot unlike the Purple Sunbirds that prefers to perch beside flowers. Like other sunbirds, they also feed on small insects and spiders.

The breeding season is November to March in India, February to May in Sri Lanka. The nest is built by the female which may however be accompanied by the male. Two eggs are laid in a suspended nest in a tree. The eggs are incubated only by the female for about 15 days. The nest is a bag of webs, bark and caterpillar frass. The nest is built by the female and young are fed by both parents. Nests may sometimes be reused for a second brood. It often builds its nest within the nests of "social spiders" (Eresidae).

The nest is usually, not the little hanging structure made by most species, but placed in the large flocculent masses of cobweb spun in low bushes by a certain species of spider. In the interior of the mass the birds press out a more or less globular chamber, lining the walls with vegetable down, and generally providing a little cave of cobweb over the entrance, which is at one side. If spider's webs are not available, they appear on occasions to construct a little pear-shaped, hanging structure like that of the next species.

— W E Wait, 1912

Salim Ali notes that the species is exceptional among Indian sunbirds in not having cobwebs on the exterior.