The rainbow bee-eater (''Merops ornatus'') 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 lightweig ...

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 group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Meropidae.

Taxonomy

The rainbow bee-eater is the only species of Meropidae found in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

and is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

. Its closest relative is most likely the olive bee-eater (''Merops superciliosus'') of southern and eastern Africa, but molecular phylogenetic analysis places the rainbow bee-eater as closest relative with 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 populat ...

(''M. apiaster''). It was first described by John Latham in 1801. The generic name is

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...

''merops'' which means 'bee-eater' and the

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bo ...

is Latin ''ornatus'' 'ornate, adorned'.

Description

Rainbow bee-eaters are brilliantly coloured birds that grow to be in length, including the elongated tail feathers, and weighing . The upper back and wings are green in colour, and the lower back and under-tail coverts are bright blue. The undersides of the wings and primary flight feathers are rufous to copper with green edges and tipped with black, and the tail is black to deep violet. The rainbow bee-eater's two central tail feathers are longer than the other tail feathers, and are longer in the male rainbow bee-eaters than in the females. The crown of the head, the stomach and breast, and the throat are pale yellow-orange in color, and it has a black crescent-shaped gorget and a black stripe, edged with blue, extending through its bright red eye. They have small, syndactylous feet (i.e., with toes partly united). The juvenile has a greener crown, lacks throat bands and tail streamers.

Distribution and habitat

Rainbow bee-eaters are a common species and can be found during the summer in forested areas in most of southern

, excluding

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

. They migrate north during the winter into northern Australia,

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torres ...

, and some of the southern islands of

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...

. A vagrant has been recorded on Miyako Island, Japan. They may be found in open woodlands, beaches, dunes, cliffs, mangroves, and farmlands, and they often visit parks and private gardens.Trusler, P., Kloot, T., and McCulloch, E. M. (1980) ''Birds of Australian Gardens.'' Rigby, Adelaide.

Behaviour

Like all bee-eaters, rainbow bee-eaters are very social birds. When they are not breeding they roost together in large groups in dense undergrowth or large trees.

Vocalization

The rainbow bee-eater makes a series of loud, melodious "pir-r-r" calls, characterized by rapid vibrating and high pitch, usually in flight. A softer, slower call is exchanged between perching birds.

Nesting

Rainbow bee-eaters are ground-nesting birds, like all bee-eaters. Breeding season is before and after the

rainy season The rainy season is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. Rainy Season may also refer to: * ''Rainy Season'' (short story), a 1989 short horror story by Stephen King * "Rainy Season", a 2018 song by Monni * '' ...

in the north, and from November to January in the south.Morcombe, Michael (2012) ''Field Guide to Australian Birds''. Pascal Press, Glebe, NSW. Revised edition. Fry, H. and P. F. D. Boesman (2020). "Rainbow bee-eater (Merops ornatus), version 1.0." In ''Birds of the World'' (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.rabeat1.01 Rainbow bee-eaters are believed to mate for life. The male will bring the female insects while she digs the burrow that will be their nest. The bee-eater digs its burrow by balancing on its wings and feet, and digs with its bill, then pushing loose soil backwards with its feet while balancing on its bill. The female bee-eater can dig about three inches down every day. The nest tunnel is very narrow, and the birds' bodies press so tightly against the tunnel walls that when the birds enter and exit their movement acts like a piston, pumping in fresh air and pushing out stale air. Rainbow bee-eaters have also been known to share their nest tunnels with other bee-eaters and sometimes even other species of birds. The female lays between 3 and 7 rounded, translucent white eggs, measuring , which are incubated for about 21 to 24 days until hatching. The young bee-eaters fledge after 28 to 31 days and are fed by both parents, as well as by any other members of the communal group.

Cane toad The cane toad (''Rhinella marina''), also known as the giant neotropical toad or marine toad, is a large, terrestrial true toad native to South and mainland Central America, but which has been introduced to various islands throughout Oceania ...

s are known to prey on nestlings.

Diet

Rainbow bee-eaters mostly eat flying insects, but, as their name implies, they have a real taste for

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 monophyletic lineage within the superfami ...

s. Rainbow bee-eaters are always watching for flying insects, and can spot a potential meal up to 45 metres away. Once it spots an insect a bee-eater will swoop down from its perch and catch it in its long, slender, black bill and fly back to its perch. Bee-eaters will then knock their prey against their perch to subdue it. Even though rainbow bee-eaters are actually immune to the stings of bees and

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 ...

s, upon capturing a bee they will rub the insect's stinger against their perch to remove it, closing their eyes to avoid being squirted with poison from the ruptured poison sac. Bee-eaters can eat several hundred bees a day, so they are obviously resented by

beekeepers A beekeeper is a person who keeps honey bees. Beekeepers are also called honey farmers, apiarists, or less commonly, apiculturists (both from the Latin '' apis'', bee; cf. apiary). The term beekeeper refers to a person who keeps honey bees i ...

, but their damage is generally balanced by their role in keeping pest insects such as

locust Locusts (derived from the Vulgar Latin ''locusta'', meaning grasshopper) are various species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae that have a swarming phase. These insects are usually solitary, but under certain circumstanc ...

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 t ...

s under control.

Roe 8 Controversy

Opponents of the Roe 8 project in Perth, Western Australia, claimed that the rainbow bee-eater migrates to the Beeliar Wetlands, which is in the pathway of the Roe Highway extension. Following the 11 March 2017 election, the incoming Labor Government suspended this project and reclamation work by volunteers has begun.

Conservation Status

The rainbow bee-eater is a common, migratory species with a wide distribution and stable population, which is classified as

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. ...

on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biolo ...

Gallery

File:Rainbowbeeeater.jpg, Flying Image:Rainbow beeeater.ogv, Rainbow bee-eater sunning, early morning SE Queensland, Australia Image:Rainbow Bee-eaters Juffs.JPG, Photographed at Dayboro, SE Queensland, Australia File:Roe 8 path 101216 gnangarra-109.JPG, Rainbow bee-eater entering a nesting burrow in the Beeliar wetlands

References

External links

Photos, audio and video of the rainbow bee-eater
from

Cornell Lab of Ornithology The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a member-supported unit of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, which studies birds and other wildlife. It is housed in the Imogene Powers Johnson Center for Birds and Biodiversity in Sapsucker Woods Sanctuar ...

's Macaulay library.
Photos and recordings of the rainbow bee-eater
from Graeme Chapman's archive. {{Taxonbar, from=Q833979 rainbow bee-eater Birds of Australia rainbow bee-eater Articles containing video clips