Nominate Subspecies : courting pair
Photo by Alok Tewari
Basai Wetlands, Gugaon, Haryana, India, May-2018
Photo by Alok Tewari
Basai Wetlands, Gugaon, Haryana, India, May-2018
- Merops persicus
Identification
31 cm (12 in)
- Green plumage
- Blue sides to face
- Black eye stripe
- Yellow and brown throat
- Black bill
- Two elongated central tail feathers.
Sexes alike
Similar Species
Similar to Blue-tailed Bee-eater but note blue supercilium. Distinctly larger than Little Green Bee-eater.
Distribution
Morocco, Algeria, eastern Turkey to Kazakhstan and North-western India; winters in tropical Africa.
Taxonomy
Subspecies
There are 2 subspecies[1]:
- M. p. chrysocercus
- North-western Africa (south of the Atlas Mountains); Senegambia to Lake Chad
- M. p. persicus
Habitat
Dry semi desert areas, desert oases, coastal mangroves, scrub, reed beds and farmland.
Behaviour
They hawk from exposed perches and overhead power lines.
Diet
The African subspecies mostly eat dragonflies, whereas the Asian birds include bees, wasps and hornets too.
Breeding
They nest colonially in sandy banks, making a long tunnel. They lay 4-8 spherical white eggs which are incubated by both parents.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2016. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2016, with updates to August 2016. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved June 2015)
- Wikipedia
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Blue-cheeked Bee-eater. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 16 June 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Blue-cheeked_Bee-eater
External Links
