A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Merops orientalis
Like other bee-eaters, this species is a richly coloured, slender bird. The sexes are not visually distinguishable. The entire plumage is bright green and tinged with blue especially on the chin and throat. The crown and upper back are tinged with golden rufous. The flight feathers are rufous washed with green and tipped with blackish. A fine black line runs in front of and behind the eye. The iris is crimson and the bill is black while the legs are dark grey. The feet are weak with the three toes joined at the base.
Seen near the Nalsarovar Bird Sanctuary.
The calls is a nasal trill tree-tree-tree-tree, usually given in flight. Several populations have been designated as subspecies.
Spotted on Sep 24, 2012
Submitted on Oct 27, 2012
8 Comments
That is a good thing. Beautiful birds.
I am not aware of shortages of bees in our area due to the presence of this bird.
Very interesting.
They catch bees on the flight and have an interesting way of eating them.
You can find more details on my previous spotting:
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/148...
and you can see one with the prey:
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/116...
Wow, I had no idea. That is interesting. so is there a shortage of bees in your region as a result of the many birds?
That is an interesting bird. Pretty too. What do they eat?
Thanks P Young! We have a lot of them around :-)
What interesting birds, I have never seen these before.