Little bee-eater

Description

Members of this species, like other bee-eaters, are rich and brightly coloured slender birds. They have green upper parts, yellow throats, black gorgets, and rich brown upper breasts fading to buffish ochre on the belly. Their wings are green and brown. Their beaks and legs are black. They reach a length of 15–17 cm, which makes them the smallest African bee-eater. Sexes are alike. Often silent, their call is a soft "seep".

Ecology

These are abundant and tame birds, familiar throughout their range. There have been estimated to be between 60 and 80 million little bee-eaters. They breed in open country with bushes, preferably near water. Just as the name suggests, bee-eaters predominantly eat insects, especially bees, wasps and hornets, who are caught in the air by sorties from an open perch. This species often hunts from low perches, maybe only a metre or less high. Before eating their meal, a bee-eater removes the stinger by repeatedly hitting the insect on a hard surface.

Unlike most bee-eaters, these are solitary nesters, 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. These birds roost communally, lined up on a tree branch.

Subspecies and plumages

Image:Merops pusillus00a.jpg|Male and juvenile female File:Flickr - tj.haslam - Little Bee-Eater (Merops pusillus).jpg|Hann Park, Dakar, Senegal Little Bee-eater (Merops pusillus pusillus), Kotu Beach, Gambia.jpg|M. p. pusillus, Gambia Little_Bee-eater.jpeg|M. p. meridionalis Samburu National Reserve, Kenya Little Bee-eater SS.jpg|At Maasai Mara, Kenya

References

References

1. BirdLife International. (2016). "''Merops pusillus''".
2. (2010). "Birds of the Horn of Africa: Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia and Socotra". Bloomsbury Publishing.
3. Eugene M. McCarthy. (2006). "Handbook of Avian Hybrids of the World". Oxford University Press.
4. (2020). "Birds of the Horn of Africa: Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia and Socotra". A&C Black.
5. (2021-09-16). "Little Bee-eater (Merops pusillus)".
6. (1874). "The Ibis: journal of the British Ornithologists' Union". Wiley-Blackwell.