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Little Green Bee-eater

Merops orientalis

Description:

Confused on the Id. 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.

Habitat:

Seen at Nalsarovar bird sanctuary.

Notes:

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.

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14 Comments

Wild Things
Wild Things 11 years ago

Ashish, I have updated the ID till something firm comes up. Thanks again for the help.

Wild Things
Wild Things 11 years ago

Thanks a lot Ashish! I was in favor of green bee eater (as there were many green bee eaters around at that time), but somebody told me it could be blue tailed. Will search and update.

Ashish Nimkar
Ashish Nimkar 11 years ago

Satyen now you will not any more doubt about ID... Refer that Black border on spreaded wings....
http://orientalbirdimages.org/search.php...
http://orientalbirdimages.org/search.php...

Wild Things
Wild Things 12 years ago

Added to the global flight mission.

Wild Things
Wild Things 12 years ago

Thanks Sachin.

Sachin Zaveri
Sachin Zaveri 12 years ago

Very well captured Satyen

Wild Things
Wild Things 12 years ago

Thanks again Anjali.

AnjaliAnantharam
AnjaliAnantharam 12 years ago

:-).. Nice pose though ...

Wild Things
Wild Things 12 years ago

Thanks Anjali, confused between green and blue tailed.

AnjaliAnantharam
AnjaliAnantharam 12 years ago

Bee eater for sure .. which one difficult to tell..

Wild Things
Wild Things 12 years ago

Help required on the Id.

Wild Things
Wild Things 12 years ago

Thanks.

Atul
Atul 12 years ago

nice diving pose!!

Wild Things
Wild Things 12 years ago

Uploaded a cropped image.

Wild Things
Spotted by
Wild Things

Gujarat, India

Spotted on Oct 10, 2011
Submitted on Nov 25, 2011

Spotted for Missions

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Reference

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