Called Yellow-bellied Sunbird and placed in the large genus Nectarinia by Australian checklists (e.g. HANZAB). However Howard & Moore, IOC and Clements now place this bird in the genus Cinnyris with the English name Olive-backed Sunbird. The subspecies found on the Solomon Islands is C. j. flavigastra, sometimes misspelled flavigaster. It is similar to C. j. frenatus found in New Guinea and Australia but has deeper yellow underparts. This is a male. The female is similar but lacks the striking iridescent blue gorget.
Sunbirds (Nectariniidae) are an Old World family of brightly colored nectarivores. Their colors are light-dependent, iridescent and ephemeral. These birds can be very active and occasionally hover in mid-air like a hummingbird. They lower their metabolism and body temperature at night during sleep to conserve energy; a strategy also used by hummingbirds. The long curved bill is used to extract nectar from flowers.
