- Merops pusillus
Identification
16 cm - 6 1/4 inches
- Green upper parts
- Yellow throat
- Black gorget
- Brown upper breast fading towards ochre on the belly
- Wings are green and brown
- Black beak
Sexes are alike
Distribution
Africa:
Western Africa: Mauritania, Senegambia, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola
Eastern Africa: Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi
Southern Africa: Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal, eSwatini
Taxonomy
Subspecies
Merops pusillus has five subspecies[1]:
- M. p. pusillus
- Savannas from Senegambia to Cameroon, Sudan and north-eastern DRC
- M. p. ocularis
- M. p. cyanostictus
- M. p. meridionalis
- Congo basin to eastern DRC, Uganda and western Kenya south to KwaZulu-Natal
- M. p. argutus
Habitat
Open country with scattered trees and bushes.
Behaviour
Diet
Their diet includes insects, especially bees, wasps and hornets, which are caught on the wing.The sting is removed by hitting the insect on a hard surface.
Breeding
A nest is made by making a tunnel in sandy banks, or sometimes in the entrance to an Aardvark den. They lay 4 to 6 spherical white eggs. Both the male and the female take care of the eggs.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2017. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2017, with updates to August 2017. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Avibase
- Kenya Birds
- Wikipedia
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Little Bee-eater. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 28 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Little_Bee-eater
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1
