Chestnut-headed Bee-eater

Identification

The chestnut-headed bee-eater is 18–20 cm (7.1–7.9 in) in overall length and weighs 26–33 g (0.92–1.16 oz). The sexes are similar in appearance. The forehead, crown, nape, mantle and ear-coverts are bright chestnut. The lores are black, continued as a thin band under the eye and ear-coverts. The wing coverts, lower back and tertials are green, the latter are tipped with bluish. The rump and uppertail coverts are pale shining blue. The primaries and secondaries are green, rufous on the inner webs, and all tipped dusky. The central tail-feathers are bluish on the outer, and green on the inner webs; the others are green, margined on the inner web with brown and all tipped dusky. The sides of the face, chin and throat are 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 is a gorget formed by a short distinct band of black and then an ill-defined band of yellow. The remainder of lower plumage is green tipped with blue, especially on the vent and undertail coverts. The iris is red, the bill is black, the legs are dusky black and the claws dark horn-colour. The juveniles are like the adult but duller. They a green forehead, forecrown and mantle. The lower throat is yellow rather than chestnut and the gorget band is indistinct. The breast and belly are paler and more olive in colour than the adult.<p>The Javan sub-species, M. l. quinticolor, differs in having the space from the bill down to the black pectoral band pure yellow without any chestnut, and in having an entirely blue tail. Race andamanensis found in the Andamans is slightly larger than the Indian race.

Taxonomy

The chestnut-headed bee-eater was formally described in 1817 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot under the current binomial name Merops leschenaulti. He specified the locality as Java. This was an error as this species does not occur there and the locality has been designated as Sri Lanka. The specific epithet was chosen to honour the French naturalist and collector Jean-Baptiste Leschenault de La Tour who had brought Vieillot's specimen to France.<p>Three subspecies are recognised:

Scientific name

Merops leschenaulti

Authority

Vieillot, 1817

Order

Coraciiformes

Family

Meropidae

Genus

Merops

Range and habitat

This is a bird which breeds in sub-tropical open woodland, often near water. It is most common in highland areas.

Migration

Complete migrants

Behavior

These birds are gregarious and feed and roost communally.<p>Chestnut-headed bee-eaters usually nest in small colonies 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 and feed the young.<p>As the name suggests, bee-eaters predominantly eat insects, especially bees, wasps and hornets, which are caught in the air by sorties from an open perch.

Conservation

Population trend

rising