green bee eater

Green Bee-eater is the smallest species. It is mostly bronze-green, with golden-green crown and nape, black eye line, pale bluish-green cheeks, chin and throat, and narrow black half-collar between throat and breast. Wings show black trailing edges. Outer undertail feathers are shiny grey, and median rectrices are long and purplish. Streamers may reach up to 7 cm in male. Black bill is long and down-curved. Eyes are deep red. Legs and feet are blackish. Female is similar to male, but she has shorter streamers, duller throat and narrower half collar. Juvenile is duller. It lacks half collar. Eye line is duller and paler. Breast is pale green and belly almost white.

Green Bee-eater frequents wooded areas with scattered trees and bushes, near streams and shores. It is also found in arid areas with Acacia and date palms, dunes, close to cultivated areas and large gardens. It likes sandy and bare soils. This species can be seen from sea-level up to 2000 metres of elevation.

Green Bee-eater feeds on Hymenoptera, bugs, termites, beetles, moths and a lot of flies. It also consumes some butterflies, crickets, dragonflies, spiders and caterpillars.

Utters a throaty trill, tree-tree-tree.

The green bee-eater (Merops orientalis) also known as little green bee-eater is a near passerine bird in the bee-eater family. It is resident but prone to seasonal movements and is found widely distributed across sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal and the Gambia to Ethiopia the Nile valley western Arabia and Asia through India to Vietnam.2 They are mainly insect eaters and they are found in grassland thin scrub and forest often quite far from water. Several regional plumage variations are known and several subspecies have been named. Like other bee-eaters this species is a richly coloured slender bird. It is about 9 inches (16–18 cm) long with about 2 inches made up by the elongated central tail-feathers. 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. Southeast Asian birds have rufous crown and face and green underparts whereas Arabian beludschicus has a green crown blue face and bluish underparts. The wings are green and the beak is black. The elongated tail feathers are absent in juveniles. Sexes are alike. BEHAVIOUR Green Bee-eater is usually less gregarious than other bee-eaters. It often nests alone or in small groups. They sleep in flocks at roosts perched high in trees. Outside the night this bird perches fairly low. It hunts from a perch fence small thorny tree but it is less aerial than other bee-eaters. It usually hunts low from the ground performing short swoop before to return to its perch. It may sometimes perch on cattle’s back or grazing antelope and perform sallies close to the ground into vegetation for catching some insect. Before swallowing its prey it removes the dart by striking several times the insect against a hard surface.