Bee-eaters - Bird of the Month: October 2012 *

[Amoli]

The aim of the thread is for all mites to join in and to :
* Endeavour to find and mark-off as many species in your bird/animal book as possible.
* To highlight their different behavior, diets, breeding.
* To chat about their habitats and migration.
* Dig up all your pics you have and share with us.
* Take your camera on a hunting trip.

OCTOBER – BEE-EATERS

Let’s start with Bee-eaters and do an animal next month.

In our AW bird book we have some beautiful pics of:

European Bee-eater by Flutterby
Southern Carmine Bee-eater by Flutterby
Little Bee-eater by Dewi
Swallow tailed Bee-eater by Mel
White fronted Bee-eater by Sprocky

The Blue-cheeked bee-eater and Swalllow-tailed Bee-eater is found in the far northern parts of S.A, Mozambique and our Northern border countries.
(anyone for a travel to get us a pic)
The four species, Rosy Bee-eater, Bohm’s Bee-eater, White-throated Bee-eater and Olive Bee-eater might be more of a challenge as they are only on the Northern borders of our neighbors.

Of the 25 recognised species,
18 occur in Africa.
Asia has five species of Bee-eater,
and Australia just one.

Most favour open savannah or forest-fringe habitats, often in proximity to rivers, where insects are abundant and breeding sites plentiful.
Closely related to Kingfishers and Rollers - and certainly just as colourful - Bee-eaters are skilled and specialised predators of bees and other winged insects. Their prey is taken in mid air, usually after some accomplished acrobatics, and often brought to a perch to be immobilised and swallowed.
I recall seeing some pics on this forum showing off the acrobatics.

Watching these bold and energetic birds is hugely entertaining and because many species are quite relaxed in the presence of man, photographic opportunities come readily. For these reasons, Bee-eaters are among the most admired of birds.

**(information from Google and Africa Wild forum)

over to you.....

[Toko]

Read here some fascinating info about Bee-eaters: Wild Card Magazine - Bee-eaters (page 38)

[Amoli]

In the recent issue of Wild, I came across this article on Bee-eaters, and I quote parts of it :

The journey of migrating European bee-eaters over a period of 6-8 weeks is between 6000 and 8000km.

All bee-eaters excavate similar tunnels in the ground in which to nest, but not all are colonial breeders.
The breeding colonies of the carmine bee-eaters are one of the world’s major bird spectacles. You have to go to the Zambezi River or to the sites along the Okavango and Kwando rivers in Caprivi and Northern Botswana to witness it.
There a thousand or more birds gather annually in August to breed at a few, regularly used sites along the river honeycombing the high earth banks with their nest tunnels.



White-fronted bee-eaters tunnel into earth banks along rivers, but their colonies number only a few dozen birds. There are many such colonies along rivers in the Kruger National Park. One conveniently placed for watching is right alongside the Phabeni Gate entrance road.





The two small bee-eater species are both solitary breeders. They often dig their nest tunnels in the roof of aardvark holes so are not easily observed at the nest.

European Bee-eater nests




The Swallow-tailed bee-eater is often found nesting in the low roadside embankments along the Nossob and Mata Mata roads in KTP.

I have borrowed pics off the net, but if anyone has pictures of nests, please post them.

[Toko]

443. White-fronted Bee-eater Merops bullockoides (Rooikeelbyvreter)

Description
The white forehead and square tail make this species fairly easy to distinguish. It has a height of 24 cms and weighs around 35 gms. The head is coloured bronze; the bill is black. It has a scarlet coloured throat, grey legs and a blue coloured back. The eyes are brown.

Distribution and habitat
Endemic to Africa, occurring from Gabon and Uganda south to southern Africa, where it is locally common in the Caprivi Strip (Namibia), northern and south-eastern Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland and north-eastern and central South Africa. It is often associated with riverbanks and eroded gullies, as they are used as nesting sites. It generally prefers wooded grasslands, bushy pastures, broad-leaved and mixed woodlands, especially with nearby watercourses.
Often found in the river banks.

Food
It feeds exclusively on insects, doing most of its hunting from a perch. Once prey is located, it descends to grab the insect before returning to its perch to swallow it. Their diet of insects, which is almost always honey bees, is caught either through rapid flight down from a low tree perch or during a slower hovering flight, sometimes ascending to hundreds of metres above the ground.

Breeding
Monogamous, strongly gregarious colonial nester. It has one of the most complicated societies of all birds, with each colony comprising a number of groups, known as clans.
Each clan contains 3-6 "families", each containing one breeding pair and 1-5 helpers. Although a number of clans live in one colony, each has its own feeding territory, which they it defends vigorously from other clans.
The helpers are usually the offspring of the breeding pair, helping with incubation and raising of the chicks.
Interestingly, 9-12% of the chicks are not related to either one or both parents. If one parent is not related, it is because one of the parents copulated with a bird usually outside the family group - this is known as "extra-pair copulation". If both parents are not related, it is due to parasitism, where an unpaired female lays eggs in a breeding pair's nest, sometimes destroying any existing eggs which are not her own - this is known as intra-specific parasitism.
The nest is built by both sexes and sometimes a helper, consisting of a tunnel 1.0 -1.2 m long, ending in an oval chamber. The burrow is usually dug into riverbanks or gullies by moving sand with its bill or, if it finds a more serious obstacle, using a bicycling action with its feet.
Egg-laying season is normally in early summer, from August to November.
It lays 2-5 eggs, with parasitism within the species also recorded, where an unpaired female lays its egg in a breeding pair's nest. It waits for the nest owner's absence, removing any existing eggs before laying its own. These chicks are raised normally, as there is no way that the adoptive parents can know whether they are their own.
Incubation lasts roughly 21 days, with both parents and helpers participating.
The chicks stay in the nest for 20-28 days, leaving before they have fully learnt to hunt. They are taught by their parents how to hunt insects, after which some juveniles disperse while others remain to help with the rearing of the next generation.

Sources: biodiversityexplorer, BBC Nature Wildlife, ARKive, Birds in SA

[Toko]

White-fronted Bee-eater at Crook's Corner, Kruger NP

[Toko]

Here is a short video clip: White-fronted Bee-eater at Crook's Corner, Kruger NP

[Amoli]

I found this reading very interesting.
The pics I have are from some time ago, when I was practising a lot...
I found them in Rietvlei on the road adjoining the vlei in March.
One adult followed me and then perched on an old stump waiting for me to take pics. -O -O

[Sprocky]

[Amoli]

White-fronted Bee-eater - they nest in a different area than the European bee-eater..

[Toko]

444. Little Bee-eater Merops pusillus (Kleinbyvreter)

Description
The Little Bee-eater has a height of 17 cms and weighs around 15 gms. The head is green. The bill is black. It has a yellow coloured throat, grey legs and a green coloured back. The eyes are red.

Distribution and habitat
Probably the most common bee-eater in Africa, with an estimated population of 60-86 million birds! It occurs across sub-Saharan Africa; in southern Africa it is common in northern Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and north-eastern South Africa. It generally prefers dry and moist savanna, partly dry marshes, lake shores, riverbanks, farmland and grassy clearings in forests.

Food
It exclusively eats insects, doing most of its hunting from low perches, hawking insects aerially before returning to the perch to beat them to death.

Breeding
Both sexes excavate the nest, which consists of a 0.5-1.3 m long tunnel, ending in a 10 cm wide egg chamber. It is usually dug into high, sandy banks such as riverbanks, ditches or plough furrows.
Egg-laying season is from August-February, peaking from September-December.
It lays 2-6 eggs, which are incubated by both sexes for about 18-20 days.
The chicks stay in the nest for 23-24 days, becoming fully independent several weeks later.

Sources: biodiversityexplorer, ARKive