A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Merops orientalis
As the name goes, saw these birds catching the bees in flight. Then they used to bang the bees to the bark of the trees (as evident in the 3rd and 4th pics) before gulping them down. As explained in wiki: Like other species in the genus, bee-eaters predominantly eat insects, especially bees, wasps and ants, which are caught in the air by sorties from an open perch. Before swallowing prey, a bee-eater removes stings and breaks the exoskeleton of the prey by repeatedly thrashing it on the perch.
Seen at Madhav National Park.
A study suggested that Green Bee-eaters may be capable of interpreting the behaviour of human observers. They showed an ability to predict whether a human at a particular location would be capable of spotting the nest entrance and then behaved appropriately to avoid giving away the nest location. The ability to look at a situation from another's point of view was previously believed to be possessed only by primates.
Spotted on Jun 4, 2012
Submitted on Jun 11, 2012
6 Comments
Thanks Aakash.
Well captured
Thanks Arun!
nice spotting ..
Thanks Sachin! This is the first time that I have seen this behavior. I was amazed.
Nice series,