Rainbow Bee-eater
Merops ornatus(3 photos)
Rainbow Bee-eater
23-28 cm, incl. tail points. Gorgeous blue-and-green bird: bill finely curved; eye red in blue-edged long black eyeline; throat orange-yellow with black crescent. Male: crown orange-bronze; tail shafts extend 2.5 cm, often broken when nesting. Female: crown greener, 'shafts' shorter. Immature: greener, with dark eye, creamish throat. Pairs, parties, loose flocks: perches fences, dead branches; dashes into air after bees, wasps, dragonflies. Flight undulating, soaring, on translucent orange, black-edged wings. In n. Aust., wintering companies roost in mangroves, rainforest.
- Other name
- Rainbow Bird; 'Kingfisher'.
- Voice
- rolling 'pirr, pirr'; sharp 'pik!'.
- Habitat
- open woodlands with sandy, loamy soil; sandridges, sandpits, riverbanks, road cuttings, beaches, dunes, cliffs, mangroves, rainforest, woodlands, golf courses.
- Breeding
- Oct.-Feb. in s.; Sept.-Oct., May-July in n. Aust., in pairs with helpers, in loose colonies.
- Eggs
- 4-5; white, glossy, rounded; in burrow in sandy ground, bank, cutting.
- Range & Status
- breeding resident in n. Aust.; summer breeding migrant (Sept.-April) to se.-sw. Aust. In inland and dry w. coast, mostly passage migrant, some breeding. Winters n. Aust., Solomon Is., PNG, e. Indonesia. Common.
