See text Nectarinia is a genus of birds in the sunbird family, Nectariniidae.

Towards the late 20th century, the dominant trend was to use it to group all "typical" sunbirds.

More recently taxonomists have divided the Nectarinia into eight genera which are now considered distinct from Nectarinia: Leptocoma, Anabathmis, Chalcomitra, Cinnyris, Cyanomitra, Dreptes, Anthobaphes, and Drepanorhynchus.

The genus Nectarinia was introduced in 1811 by the German zoologist Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger.

[2] The type species was designated as Certhia famosa Linnaeus, 1766 by George Gray in 1840.