Northern carmine bee-eater
by Michelle Meenawong
Title
Northern carmine bee-eater
Artist
Michelle Meenawong
Medium
Photograph - Metal Print
Description
The northern carmine bee-eater (Merops nubicus) is an African near passerine bird in the bee-eater family, Meropidae. Alternative common names include the carmine bee-eater or the Nubian bee-eater. It is closely related to the southern carmine bee-eater where the throat is carmine (instead of blue).
This species, like other bee-eaters, is a richly colored, slender bird, predominantly carmine in color, except for a greenish blue head and throat and distinctive black mask. This species has red eyes, a black, pointed, decurved beak, and elongated central tail feathers.
The sexes are similar in appearance, and the juveniles can be distinguished from adults by their lack of elongated central tail feathers and the pinkish brown coloration of their mantle, chest to belly, and flanks.
They nest in large colonies in cliffs, usually near river banks, where they use their bills to dig long horizontal nesting tunnels, often eight feet or more in length. Some colonies may consist of just a few nests while others accommodate hundreds of breeding birds. The same site may be used for several years and then the colony may all move to another location. Occupied nests accumulate a black litter of insect remains and smell strongly of ammonia. Three to five eggs are laid per clutch.
Their diet is made up primarily of bees and other flying insects, such as flying ants, grasshoppers and locusts. The main hunting strategy of bee-eaters is to keep watch for flying insects from a perch, and then snatch them out of the air using their beaks, before returning to the perch
A very grateful thank you to the following groups for featuring this picture
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Uploaded
September 9th, 2017
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