The chestnut-headed bee-eater (''Merops leschenaulti''), or bay-headed bee-eater, is a

near passerine Near passerines and higher land-bird assemblage are terms of traditional, pre-cladistic taxonomy that have often been given to tree-dwelling birds or those most often believed to be related to the true passerines (order Passeriformes) owing to mor ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

in the

bee-eater The bee-eaters are a group of non-passerine birds in the family Meropidae, containing three genera and thirty species. Most species are found in Africa and Asia, with a few in southern Europe, Australia, and New Guinea. They are characterised by ...

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Meropidae. It is a resident breeder in the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

and adjoining regions, ranging from India east to Southeast Asia. This species, like other bee-eaters, is a richly coloured, slender bird. It is predominantly green, with blue on the rump and lower belly. Its face and throat are yellow with a black eye stripe, and the crown and nape are rich chestnut. The thin curved bill is black. Sexes are alike, but young birds are duller. This species is 18–20 cm long; it lacks the two elongated central tail feathers possessed by most of its relatives.

Description

Forehead, crown, nape, lower face and ear-coverts bright chestnut ; lores black, continued as a band under the eye and ear-coverts ; wing-coverts, lower back and tertiaries green, the latter tipped with bluish; rump and upper tail-coverts pale shining blue; primaries and secondaries green, rufous on the inner webs, and all tipped dusky ; central tail-feathers bluish on the outer, and green on the inner webs ; the others green, margined on the inner web with brown and all tipped dusky ; sides of face, chin and throat yellow ; below this a broad band of chestnut extending to the sides of the neck and meeting the chestnut of the upper plumage ; below this again a short distinct band of black and then an ill-defined band of yellow ; remainder of lower plumage green, tipped with blue, especially on the vent and under tail-coverts.Oates, E. W. 1883. Birds of British Burmah. The Javan sub-species, ''M. l. quinticolor'', differs in having the whole space from the bill down to the black pectoral band pure yellow without any chestnut, and in having the tail blue. Race ''andamanensis'' found in the Andamans is slightly larger than the Indian race.Rasmussen, P. C. & J. Anderton 2005. The Birds of South Asia. The Ripley Guide. Vol 1 & 2. Lynx Edicions & Smithsonian Institution. Iris crimson ; bill black ; legs dusky black ; claws dark horn-colour.

Habits

This is a bird which breeds in sub-tropical open woodland, often near water. It is most common in highland areas. As the name suggests, bee-eaters predominantly eat

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s, especially

bee Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyly, monophyletic lineage within the ...

wasp A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. Th ...

s and

hornet Hornets (insects in the genus ''Vespa'') are the largest of the eusocial wasps, and are similar in appearance to their close relatives yellowjackets. Some species can reach up to in length. They are distinguished from other vespine wasps by th ...

s, which are caught in the air by sorties from an open perch. These bee-eaters are gregarious, nesting colonially in sandy banks. They make a relatively long tunnel in which the 5 to 6 spherical white eggs are laid. Both the male and the female take care of the eggs. These birds also feed and roost communally. The call is similar to that of the

European bee-eater The European bee-eater (''Merops apiaster'') is a near passerine bird in the bee-eater family, Meropidae. It breeds in southern and central Europe, northern and southern Africa, and western Asia. Except for the resident southern African populatio ...

. Its scientific name commemorates the French botanist

Jean Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour Jean-Baptiste Louis Claude Théodore Leschenault de La Tour (13 November 1773 – 14 March 1826) was a French botanist and ornithologist. Born at the family seat (since 1718), Le Villard, near Chalon-sur-Saône, Leschenault de la Tour arrived in ...

Notes

References

* Fry, C.H., Fry, K. & Harris, A. (1992) ''Kingfishers, Bee-eaters & Rollers.'' London: Christopher Helm. * Grimmett, R., Inskipp, C. & Inskipp, T. (2012) ''Birds of the Indian Subcontinent.'' Helm Field Guides. * Kazmierczak, K. & van Perlo, B. (2008) ''A Field Guide to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent.'' Pica Press. .

External links

Oriental Bird Images: ''chestnut-headed bee-eater''
Selected images
Xeno-canto: ''chestnut-headed bee-eater''
Sound recordings {{Taxonbar, from=Q31958

chestnut-headed bee-eater The chestnut-headed bee-eater (''Merops leschenaulti''), or bay-headed bee-eater, is a near passerine bird in the bee-eater family Meropidae. It is a resident breeder in the Indian subcontinent and adjoining regions, ranging from India east to ...

Birds of Sri Lanka Birds of Bhutan Birds of India Birds of Nepal Birds of Bangladesh Birds of Southeast Asia