The singing birds and the sunbird drinking nectar from aloe vera

Photo of aloe vera in cosmetics by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.
Problems
1 Aloe vera is in many cosmetics such as hand gels. What is aloe vera?

2 There's a bird singing in Singapore on our a l o e vera plant on a balcony in Singapore. What's that bird?

Drinking and singing. Bird on an aloe vera plant. Photo by Angela Lansbury

I remember planting the aloe vera. Photo by Angela Lansbury, 2017 copyright.

Answer
1 Aloe vera is a plant which is easily grown in a window box in a hot country such as Singapore.

2 When you hear singing from a bird, you know it is on or near the aloe vera plant. Set up a tripod. Next time you hear singing, take a photo of the bird on the aloe vera plant.

Photo courtesy of Trevorsharotphotography.com
Copyright

Now you have a picture of your bird. But what kind of bird is it? Compare it with similar pictures on the internet. Find the nearest match and its name. Read details on Wikipedia. Look at the shape of the beak and the colours of the feathers.

The bird has a curved beak. It's an olive backed sunbird. Judging by the colours of the plumage it is a female.

Story - of the Aloe Vera Plant Gift
A friend appropriately called Flora gave a member of my family the 'baby' of an aloe vera plant. The free plant cost us a lot - a large terracotta planter, plus huge bags of suitable potting compost designed to drain easily. The tiny plant sat forgotten on a sunny balcony. Would it die unattended?

Imagine our surprise, when we returned from a long holiday, to find it had grown to triple the size. It had sent up a pencil like stalk with orange flowers resembling lupins, apparently watered by the rain.

Watching and Watering Plants
I might wonder if a fairy godmother had watered it, like the mice in the fairy story who helped the tailor. But it cannot be our delightful, darling landlady, who creeps in the back way, unobtrusively to retrieve or swap over children's toys from a cupboard. She is far too busy with her children to worry about a plant which is not hers.

(I must admit that when I was living in London, as a landlady, having given a potted orchid to a new tenant, I kept an eye on the orchid. Once or twice, when I visited and saw my, now their, orchid was wilting, I sprinkled a few drops of water at it. But the plant was sitting wilting on the indoor window sill behind the kitchen tap, reproaching me as I took a drink of water, inches from it, silently imploring me for help. The plant was not independently looking after itself in the intermittent rain, out on a distant balcony.)

So I must credit the rainy season for watering the plant. The pot is large enough to retain a supply of water over the dry days. The plant is a succulent, designed or evolved to survive dry seasons.

The Bird
I am not sure how the plant benefits from the bird visit. I presume pollination. The bird clearly benefits from the nectar. Why else would a bird hang upside down on a slender stalk?

Unlike humans, the bird isn't doing a stunt to impress its friends on Facebook. The photographer has silently sneaked up, to take a photo with a camera set up on a tripod, cropped the photo, then shared the image.

Sorry - I copied the photo but it is now under date. I'll be back later.

Photo of sunbird on balcony in Singapore, courtesy of Trevor Sharot photography.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.