Recklessly: Rainbow Bee Eater Africa

Rainbow Bee Eater Africa

A striking colourful bird the rainbow bee eater is medium sized with a long slim curved bill and a long tail with distinctive tail streamers. Several hundred wasps and bees may be eaten in a single day.

Bee Eater Family Meropidae

They are also notorious vagrants regularly showing up far out of their normal ranges across southern africa and even into the middle east.

Rainbow bee eater africa. White throated bee eaters breed in the driest savanna and arid steppes of the sahel just south of the sahara yet migrate to africas great rainforests once they have nested. They migrate north during the winter into northern australia new guinea and some of the southern islands of indonesia. The rainbow bee eater merops ornatus is a small bird 21 to 24 centimetres long frequently seen on horizontal perches watching for passing insects bees or wasps or engaged in flight aerobatics to chase and catch flying prey which is seized in the bill and taken back to the perch where it is beaten against the wood and any sting squeezed out before being eaten.

Rainbow bee eaters are immune to bee and wasp stings but will still rub them against the perch to remove the stings and venom glands. The center of diversity of the family is africa although a number of species also occur in asia. These birds move northwards after breeding.

A striking colourful bird the rainbow bee eater is medium sized with a long slim curved bill and a long tail with distinctive tail streamers. It has a golden crown and a red eye set in a wide black stripe from the base of the bill to the ears which is edged with a thin blue line. Single species occur in each of europe the european bee eater australia the rainbow bee eater and madagascar the olive bee eater also found on mainland africa.

Rainbow bee eaters are found in most kinds of habitat except for dense forest. In australia the rainbow bee eater is migratory in the southern areas of its range migrating to indonesia and new guinea but occurs year round in northern australia. Most are brilliantly coloured and beautiful.

They are found from europe to australia. Over 340 local migratory and wetland bird species flock to the region including droves of candy floss coloured flamingos attracted to the brimming salt pan and the rainbow bee eater which often hitches a ride on the back of africas heaviest flying bird the grand kori bustard. There are other species of bee eaters in africa asia and one in europe.

There are 27 species bee eaters. Another population of the same species breeds in south africa and namibia. Rainbow bee eaters are a common species and can be found during the summer in forested areas in most of southern australia excluding tasmania.

Indigestible insect parts are excreted as pellets. The rainbow bee eater is the only bee eater meropidae species in australia. It has a golden crown and a red eye set in a wide black stripe from the base of the bill to the ears which is edged with a thin blue line.

100 Free Bee Eater Bird Images Pixabay