The southern carmine bee-eater (''Merops nubicoides'') (formerly carmine bee-eater) occurs across sub-equatorial

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

Description

This species, like other bee-eaters, is richly coloured and is predominantly carmine in colouration, but the crown and undertail are blue.

Range and movements

The Southern carmine bee-eater occurs from KwaZulu-Natal and

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the nort ...

, the eastern

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

and

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...

. The bee-eater is a migratory species, spending the breeding season, between August and November, in

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...

and

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

, before moving as south as

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

for the summer months, and then migrating to

Equatorial Africa Equatorial Africa is an ambiguous term that sometimes is used to refer either to the equatorial region of Sub-Saharan Africa traversed by the Equator, more broadly to tropical Africa or in a biological and geo-environmental sense to the intra- ...

from March to August.

Diet and foraging

Their diet is made up primarily of bees and other flying

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 ...

s, and their major hunting strategy involves

hawking Hawking may refer to: People * Stephen Hawking (1942–2018), English theoretical physicist and cosmologist * Hawking (surname), a family name (including a list of other persons with the name) Film * ''Hawking'' (2004 film), about Stephen Ha ...

flying insects from perch. Perches may include branches of vegetation or even the backs of large animals, such as the

kori bustard The kori bustard (''Ardeotis kori'') is the largest flying bird native to Africa. It is a member of the bustard family, which all belong to the order Otidiformes and are restricted in distribution to the Old World. It is one of the four species ( ...

. They are attracted to

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identi ...

s because of the flushed

s, and are often seen circling high in the air. They circle larger animals and even cars to catch the insects that are trying to escape.

Habitat and breeding

Its usual habitat included low-altitude river valleys and

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

s, preferring vertical banks suitable for tunneling when breeding, but readily digging vertical burrows in the level surface of small salt islands. This is a highly sociable species, gathering in large flocks, in or out of breeding season. They roost communally in trees or reedbeds, and disperse widely during the day. Nesting is at the end of a 1 to 2 meter long burrow in an earthen bank, where they lay from 2 to 5 eggs.

Gallery

Southern carmine bee-eater, Merops nubicoides, Chobe National Park, Botswana (31649416003).jpg, Kori Bustard (Ardeotis kori) and Southern Carmine Bee-eater (Merops nubicoides) (6021439753).jpg, Southern Carmine Bee-eater (Merops nubicoides) hunting over Southern Ground Hornbills (Bucorvus leadbeateri) (17354924075).jpg, Southern carmine bee-eater, Merops nubicoides, Savuti marsh, Chobe National Park, Botswana (32462175975).jpg, Southern carmine bee-eater, Merops nubicoides, Savuti marsh, Chobe National Park, Botswana (32462176535).jpg, Southern carmine bee-eater, Merops nubicoides, Savuti marsh, Chobe National Park, Botswana (31650329123).jpg,

References

*Roberts' Birds of Southern Africa - 6th edition (John Voelcker Fund, 1993)

External links

*(Southern) Carmine Bee-eater
Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds
{{Taxonbar, from=Q973061 southern carmine bee-eater Birds of Sub-Saharan Africa southern carmine bee-eater