Carmine Bee-eaters (Merops nubicus & M. nubicoides) Fact Sheet: Behavior & Ecology

Diurnal

• Active during the day
  • Emerge from nest holes after dawn, perch nearby, preen, then fly together to reach feeding areas
  • On sunny days, sun-baths common
  • Water and dust-bathing activities help rid birds of ectoparasites
  • In late afternoon during breeding season, eat sand, snail-shell and other calcium-rich items

Gregarious (from Fry 1984; Fry 2001 unless otherwise noted)

• Live in huge breeding colonies
• Form smaller flocks outside the breeding season
• Related birds often roost side-by-side, touching each other on a branch
• Colonies often associated with those of White-fronted Bee-eaters
• Colonies often used for numerous breeding cycles
• In Zimbabwe, one colony on the Umguza River was used as a breeding site for at least 80 years
• Size of breeding colonies
• Size dependent on surrounding habitat
• Colonies in cliffs typically contain 100-1,000 nests
• Colonies on flat ground may have up to 10,000 nests
• In Zimbabwe, one colony contained 1,500 birds
• Colonial behavior and cooperative breeding not linked in Carmine Bee-eaters (Emlen 1990) (Elston et al 2007)
• Carmine Bee-eaters may not use nest-helpers as do White-fronted Bee-eaters

Range widely due to migratory habits

• Birds migrate to higher latitudes for nesting, lower latitudes for wintering (Fry 1984)

Non territorial, typically

• May defend nest and foraging area from non-related birds

Typically non-aggressive

• Most often friendly when foraging with group members
  • React aggressively toward non-clan bird intrudes
    • May be defense of clan's foraging territory
• Clan members often quarrel at roost and colony sites
• Aggressive behaviors
  • Birds grapple with beaks, twirl to ground or onto water's surface
  • Males may guard their female partner in the breeding season (but both sexes may mate with others, given the chance)

Nest defense

• Breeding pairs and helpers defend from non-group members (del Hoyo et al 2001)
  • Birds may lunge at others in proximity, at entrance to nearby nest tunnels

Visual displays (from Fry 1984, 1992, 2001)

• Threat display
• A threat to neighboring birds perched nearby
• Aggressor assumes a hunched posture, body almost horizontal, crown feathers flat, throat feathers fluffed
• Begging
• Female may use juvenile begging posture for insect given by male during courting

Vocalization (from Fry 1984, 1992, 2001)

• 3 common contact calls
  
• Other calls
• Greeting, appeasement, threat, and predator alarm calls
• Flight calls
• Courtship specific vocalizations also produced
• Young produce distinctive sounds when feeding
• Typical bee-eater call
• Sound has a rolling, liquid quality
• Voice described as "un-bee-eater-like"
• Flight call
• A Short, bass, throaty "klunk", "chung","tunk" or "terk"
• Alarm call
• A loud, "rik-rik-rik-rak, rak-rik-rak-rik" and harsh "tirriktirrik-tirrik"
• Click here for Northern Carmine Bee-Eater audio; provided by The Cornell Lab of Ornithology Macaulay Library

Terrestrial locomotion

• Feet shuffle along the ground
• Feet barely leave the ground
• Feet face slightly inwards - "pigeon-toed"
• Move quickly through burrows
• Can move quickly on its short legs, covering 1-2 m (10-20 ft.) in a few seconds

Aerial locomotion

• Strong, swift flight
  
• Almost as aerial as the swallows (Hirundinidae)
• Capable of rapid twists and turns in the air
• Glide skillfully to drink over water
• Plunge into water to bathe

Other movements and body positions

• Perching
• When perching, three forward facing toes do not spread; two outer toes are partly fused
• Digs in soil with feet
• Uses both legs to push soil backwards in a bicycling motion when excavating a burrow

Females disperse

• Females leave birth group to join the family of the male (patrilocal) for breeding

Migration

• Complex three-part migration
• Travel seasonally between higher and lower latitudes
• Migration may follow migratory locusts

Animal associates

• Avian associates
  • Often found with smaller Red-throated Bee-eaters
  • Often seen on ostriches and bustards
  • May perch on storks, herons, egrets, ibises, cranes, and secretary birds
• Mammalian associates
  • Attracted to herds of ungulates
    • Northern Carmine Bee-eaters (and not Southern Carmine Bee-eaters) watch for flushed insects from the backs of large ground birds and passing mammals (wild and domestic)
      • Often seen with sheep and goats
      • May perch on cattle, camels, donkeys, zebra, wart hogs, and antelopes
      • Known to fly alongside galloping Besia oryx

Attracted to edges of fires where insects are disturbed

Nesting colonies are tourist attractions (Fry et al. 2018)

Southern Carmine Bee-eater in flight (Merops nubicoides).

Photographed at Mapungubwe National Park (Limpopo, South Africa).

Image credit: © Martin Heigan from Flickr. Some rights reserved.

del Hoyo et al (2001)
Elston et al (2007)
Emlen (1990)
Fry (1984, 2001)