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General Information
 Description:
'Bee-eaters' are small, fast, thin-beaked and often beautifully colourful
birds found in Africa, Asia and Australia. Their common name is due to the
fact that they swoop after insects such as wasps and bees, and actually
removing the sting before gobbling them up. Rainbow Bee Eaters grow to
23cm and have orange wings and head and blue wings. Their eyes are red
and the body feathers are green.
Voice:
The main call of a Rainbow Bee Eater is a rippling whistle, often given in
flight, which is undulating & erratic.
Habitat:
Rainbow Bee Eaters live in flocks or small groups throughout Australia,
though preferring more open habitats. Perching on telephone wires or in
other open positions, it takes its prey of insects on the wing.
Food:
The Rainbow Bee Eater is always alert for flying insects and can spot
a bee from 150 feet away. It immediately flies after it and almost always
catches its prey. Once the bee eater catches a bee it usually removes the
stinger even though the bird is immune to bee and wasp stings, which kill
other small birds. Bee eaters eat several hundred bees and wasps a day. They
cough up the indigestible portions in the form of pellets. When a flock of
bee eaters spots a large swarm of small termites, it attacks the swarm and
eats as many insects as possible in a short time.
Breeding: Rainbow Bee Eaters make a
nest in an earthen tunnel and they don't use any material to make it,
although the wings & shells of insects may be found in the chamber. The nest
site is in sandy or loamy earthen banks or cliffs, the tunnel often being up
to one metre or more in length, depending on conditions. The breeding season
is from September to February with four to seven eggs laid once or twice a
year, depending on seasonal conditions.
Reference: Information -
Cooloola Birds
http://www.amonline.net.au/factsheets/masked_lapwing.htm
Photo: © Brian & Val
O'Leary
Some information and pictures were taken from children's charts and
where credited to that child does not claim to be original information.
Where possible, permission to reproduce has been sought and ownership
credited. Any infringement of copyright is purely unintentional and
ownership of pictures and information used is freely acknowledged.
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