Swallow-tailed Bee-eater (Merops hirundineus)

Cover image: Swallow-tailed Bee-eater by John Todd – Richtersveld National Park, Northern Cape – BirdPix No.182789

Bee-eaters belong to the Family: MEROPIDAE. This family contains three genera and 27 species. Most species are found in Africa and Asia, with a few in southern Europe, Australia, and New Guinea. Bee-eaters are characterised by richly coloured plumage, slender bodies, and usually elongated central tail feathers. All have long decurved bills and medium to long wings, which may be pointed or rounded.

Identification

The Swallow-tailed Bee-eater is one of the smaller bee-eater species, and is the only southern African bee-eater with a deeply forked tail. The sexes are alike.

Adults have emerald-green upperparts, including the forehead, crown, mantle, upper wing coverts, back, rump and upper tail coverts. The Forehead to mantle and upper wing coverts have a slight bronze wash. On the face there is a broad black stripe running from the base of the bill, through the eye to the upper ear coverts. The chin and throat are bright yellow and the cheeks are white. The throat and breast are separated by a narrow, bright blue band. The breast is green with a faint bronzy hue and the belly, flanks and the undertail coverts are pale blue.

The primaries and secondaries are mainly rufous, with a broad, black subterminal band. The underwings are predominantly pale cinnamon, with a dark trailing edge. The tail is blue and deeply forked. Each rectrice (tail feather) has a small white tip. The bill is black. The eyes are orange-red to crimson and the legs and feet are grey-black.

Juveniles resemble the adults but are paler with uniformly green underparts and faint streaking on the breast. Juveniles lack the bright blue band across the throat and the tail is less deeply forked. They also have dark brown (not reddish) eyes.

The Swallow-tailed Bee-eater is most likely to be mistaken for the smaller Little Bee-eater (Merops pusillus) but the latter has a black (not blue) throat band, a buff (not blue) lower belly and undertail, and a green and brown (not blue) tail. The tail of the Little Bee-eater is square or slightly notched (not deeply forked).

Status and Distribution

The Swallow-tailed Bee-eater is a locally common resident and local migrant.

It is an Afrotropical species, occurring discontinuously from west Africa, east to Sudan and down to southern Africa. In southern Africa, it is mainly found in the drier northern and western parts, but is absent from the arid Namib Desert in Namibia. Despite being common along the middle and lower reaches of the Orange River in South Africa, it is only an erratic visitor into the surrounding semi-arid Nama-Karoo.

The Swallow-tailed Bee-eater is not threatened as a result of its wide range and its varied choice of habitat. It is represented in most protected areas within the arid and semi-arid regions.

Habitat

The Swallow-tailed Bee-eater frequents a variety of woodland types, preferring well-developed woodlands like riparian woodlands and tall savanna woodlands, usually on Kalahari sands, including Vachellia (Acacia), Zambezi Teak (Baikiaea plurijuga), Burkea (Burkea africana), miombo (Brachystegia), bushwillow (Combretum) and Mopane (Colophospermum mopane). The Swallow-tailed Bee-eater is also known to frequent Eucalyptus plantations.

Behaviour

The Swallow-tailed Bee-eater is found solitarily or in pairs during the breeding season and in flocks of up to 30 (usually 8-10) in winter. They roost communally in groups, perching tightly together on a tree branch.

It is subject to complex movements that are not well understood. Non-breeding birds usually occur in restless flocks, which arrive at a locality, stay for a few days or weeks, before moving on. The flight is agile and graceful due to the long wings and tail.

The Swallow-tailed Bee-eater forages by hawking insects in flight during short sallies from a perch. Also takes insects directly from flowers or vegetation. The diet consists almost entirely of insects, including venomous and non-venomous bees and wasps, also flies, beetles, grasshoppers, moths and dragonflies.

Stinging insects are caught in mid-air and held in the bill tip at the petiole of the insect’s abdomen. They then return to a perch where the prey is beaten a couple times against the perch. The prey is then held by the tip of the abdomen and rapidly (and repeatedly) rubbed against the perch to remove the sting before being eaten. Hard-bodied, non-venomous insects are beaten against the perch before swallowing. Small non-venomous insects like swarming ants and termites are eaten in flight.

Swallow-tailed Bee-eaters are monogamous and pairs nest solitarily, with the occasional assistance of a helper. Unfortunately rather little is known about its breeding biology.

The nest is a tunnel, excavated by both sexes, into the side of a low sand bank, usually less than 1.5 meters high. They also frequently nest in road verges and sometimes in the side of an Aardvark burrow or the sloping sides of a sandy mound, less often in flat or shelving sandy soil. The tunnel is straight and up to 1 meter long, widening into the nest chamber.

Eggs are laid during spring and summer (September to February), with a peak between September and November. 2 to 4 eggs are laid per clutch. The eggs are glossy white and almost spherical and are laid at 1 day intervals. Incubation details are unknown and very little is known about the development and care of the young. The young are sometimes raised with the assistance of a helper.

Nests of the Swallow-tailed Bee-eater are sometimes parasitised by the Greater Honeyguide.

Further Resources

This species text is adapted from the first Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP1), 1997.

The use of photographs by Andre Kok, Anthony Paton, John Todd, Karis Daniel, Kyle Finn, Rick Nuttall, Roelof van der Breggen, Salim Lee, Tino Herselman and Trevor Hardaker is acknowledged.

Virtual Museum (BirdPix > Search VM > By Scientific or Common Name).

Other common names: Swaelstertbyvreter (Afrikaans); Morôkapula (Tswana); Zwaluwstaartbijeneter (Dutch); Guêpier à queue d’aronde (French); Schwalbenschwanzspint Gabelschwanzspint (German); Abelharuco-andorinha (Portuguese).

List of species available in this format.

Recommended citation format: Tippett RM 2024. Swallow-tailed Bee-eater Merops hirundineus. Biodiversity and Development Institute. Available online at https://thebdi.org/2024/10/18/swallow-tailed-bee-eater-merops-hirundineus/

Bird identification, birding