Bee-eater visitor

Backyard birding

 A quick walk along the taman fence revealed that the Blue-throated Bee-eaters have arrived but the threatening sky only allowed for a quickie shot of one, a sub-adult.

11/2020

CMCO Day 4

Local or visitor bee-eaters

 The sub-adult Blue-throated Bee-eaters have been seen regularly in the taman now, and I wonder if these are residents or visitors.  There is after all a healthy local population, but going by personal records of the last three years, these visitor birds should have arrived already.

A tale of two Bee-eaters

I have always been made to understand that the two Blue-tailed and Blue-throated Bee-eaters are usually not seen together, i.e. when one is around the other would have left.  Well, this myth just blew up into smithereens when I watched the two birds within metres of one another.

The young Blue-throated Bee-eater seemed to dominate the scene as it sallied about and rested about the place.  Perhaps the bliss of youthfulness!

The Blue-tailed Bee-eater was less active.

Only sub-adult Bee-eaters

It looked like the Blue-throated Bee-eaters I've encountered so far were sub-adults compared to the other blue-tailed bee-eaters.  I almost missed this set of, I guessed, siblings because of the backlighting.

This kind of synchronised behaviour is common among these birds.

Days later I came across another set of sub-adults.

Migrant Bee-eater

This adult and juvenile Blue-throated Bee-eaters are the first pair I have seen during this migratory period.  The Blue-tailed is no where in sight yet.

Adult

Juvenile