Bee-eater

Bee-eater

We are delighted that Mr Walter Bock has taken on the sponsorship of the bee-eater (Merops apiaster).

The bee-eater is a strikingly colourful bird from the bee-eater family of the same name (Meropidae). It is a migratory bird that winters in southern Africa.

The bee-eater, which measures around 28 centimetres on average, is one of the most colourful birds in Europe. In addition to its exotic colouring, the typical slightly curved, long beak and the elongated middle tail feathers, the so-called "tail spikes", are characteristic of the adult birds.

Its distribution area extends from south-west and western Asia, north-west Africa and south and south-east Europe northwards to south-east Poland. It was considered extinct in Germany at the end of the 1980s, but has been reintroducing itself since 1990, presumably due to climate change. In 2011, half of the breeding pairs in Germany lived in southern Saxony-Anhalt near Merseburg.

Its habitat is open landscapes with individual trees and bushes. It breeds on steep slopes on the banks of rivers, lakes or ponds.

The bee-eater feeds on insects that it catches in flight. Its prey mainly includes bees, wasps and bumblebees, but also flying beetles, dragonflies and cicadas. Many of these insects are defensive, so after grabbing an insect, it first flies to a nearby perch, such as a branch. There the insect is killed with powerful blows to the base. If the insect has a stinger with venom glands, these are emptied by striking the branch. The prey is then swallowed or fed to the young.

Bee-eaters are colony breeders. They build their nests (a self-dug tube, usually one to one and a half metres long) close together on the slopes and walls of steep banks or sand pits. The clutch consists of five to seven almost spherical, pure white eggs. After hatching, the young birds are fed for 20-30 days. Even after leaving the burrow, they are still cared for by their parents.