Northern carmine bee-eater

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Northern carmine bee-eater

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Coraciiformes
Family: Meropidae
Genus: Merops
Species:
M. nubicus
Binomial name
Merops nubicus

The northern carmine bee-eater (Merops nubicus) is a brightly-coloured bird in the

conspecific with the southern carmine bee-eater
which has a carmine coloured throat rather than the blue throat of the northern species.

Taxonomy

The northern carmine bee-eater was

conspecific with the southern carmine bee-eater (Merops nubicoides).[6][7]

Description

Near Watamu, Kenya

This species, like other bee-eaters, is a richly colored, slender bird, predominantly carmine in color, except for a greenish blue head and throat and distinctive black mask. This species has red eyes, a black, pointed, decurved beak, and elongated central tail feathers.[8]

The sexes are similar in appearance, and the juveniles can be distinguished from adults by their lack of elongated central tail feathers and the pinkish brown coloration of their mantle, chest to belly, and flanks.[6] The call is a deep, throaty tunk in flight; a series of rik notes when perched.[8]

Distribution

It is native to

Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo and Uganda. It occurs as a vagrant in Burundi.[1]

Sue McLaren and colleagues have suggested that the distribution of the northern carmine bee-eater is tightly linked to the presence of secondary loess deposits throughout Africa.[9]

Behavior

Breeding

They nest in large colonies in cliffs, usually near river banks, where they use their bills to dig long horizontal nesting tunnels, often eight feet or more in length. Some colonies may consist of just a few nests while others accommodate hundreds of breeding birds. The same site may be used for several years and then the colony may all move to another location. Occupied nests accumulate a black litter of insect remains and smell strongly of ammonia. Three to five eggs are laid per clutch.[6]

Feeding

Their diet is made up primarily of

grasshoppers and locusts. The main hunting strategy of bee-eaters is to keep watch for flying insects from a perch, and then snatch them out of the air using their beaks, before returning to the perch.[6]

References

  1. ^
    doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22683768A92999759.en
    . Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  2. ^ Gmelin, Johann Friedrich (1788). Systema naturae per regna tria naturae : secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1, Part 1 (13th ed.). Lipsiae [Leipzig]: Georg. Emanuel. Beer. p. 464.
  3. ^ Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc de (1779). "Le guépier rouge à tête bleu". Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux (in French). Vol. 6. Paris: De l'Imprimerie Royale. p. 506.
  4. Daubenton, Louis-Jean-Marie (1765–1783). "Guépier de Nubie"
    . Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle. Vol. 7. Paris: De L'Imprimerie Royale. Plate 649.
  5. ^ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (August 2022). "Todies, motmots, bee-eaters". World Bird List Version 12.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 7 January 2023.
  6. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7136-8028-7
    .
  7. ISBN 978-84-87334-30-6
    .
  8. ^
    S2CID 226398809
    . Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  9. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2014.01.040
    .

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Northern_carmine_bee-eater&oldid=1161336745"