Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE ROLLER-LIKE BIRDS

THE ROLLERS AND THEIR ALLIES

THE BEE-EATERS

The Square-tailed Bee-eaters,

comprised in the genus Melittophagus, are distinguished at once by their square tails, thus differing from the Swallow-tailed on one hand and from the true Bee-eaters (Merops), in which the central pair of feathers are elongated, on the other. They are birds of relatively small size, ranging between six and nine inches in length, having a rather slender bill, rather short, rounded wings, in which the third quill is longest, and small, stout feet.

The general coloration of the plumage is green, with strong contrasts of blue, yellow, and black. Although they are to some extent gregarious, they are perhaps less so than the true Bee-eaters, and are rarely seen in large flocks. They frequent especially watercourses as well as swamps and marshy localities, and feed on insects which are captured on the wing. Their notes, like those of their relatives, are harsh and monotonous.

Thirteen of the fifteen species of Square-tailed Bee-eaters are confined to Africa, the remaining two spreading quite widely over the Indo-Malayan region. One of the most engaging species is the Little Bee-eater (M. pusillus) of Northeast and West Africa. Only about six inches long, the upper parts are bright Parrot-green, the primaries bright rufous, as are all but the central pair of tail-feathers, these being green like the back; the chin and throat are yellow, a broad patch of black passing from the base of the bill through and behind the eye, while the lower throat is covered by a broad band of black which is edged above with blue and passes below into the rufescent orange of the under parts.

This species lives in pairs and small families and is quite lively and noisy. According to Von Heuglin: “It affects low bushes, thickets overgrown with grass and creepers, cotton-fields, hedges, gardens, and maize-fields, wherever there is water near, and it does not occur in the large dry steppes. On the Gazelle River, I found them inhabiting the swamps, perching like a Kingfisher on the reeds and papyrus-like plants, from whence it pursued insects, especially flies.”Their pure white, rosy-tinted eggs are probably deposited in holes in banks.

The Chestnut-headed Bee-eater (M. swinhoii) is also a handsome bird, ranging throughout the Indian peninsula, preferring forests or well-wooded districts near streams. The head, hind neck, and upper back are bright chestnut, the wings and their coverts bright green, and the lower back and upper tail-coverts bright blue; the throat is a rich yellow, succeeded below by a rich chestnut and then a black band which passes into yellow and then into the green of the under parts

.”It is usually seen in pairs,”says Colonel Legge,”and is very arboreal in its habits, sitting on the topmost or most outstretching branches of trees overhanging water, and darting thence on its prey, and is a pretty object, with its bright green plumage and glistening rufous head, as it darts from the fine old trees lining the forest rivers down to the edge of the sparkling stream, and glides over the sandy bed, quickly catching up some passing insect.”

The nesting burrows, always made by the birds themselves, are in a bank and extend to a depth of from eighteen inches to nearly seven feet, the tunnel often turning abruptly in its course and being enlarged at the end into a chamber some six inches in diameter. The eggs, three to five in number, are placed on the bare earth.

 

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