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Rainbow Bee-eaterAlternative names: "Rainbow-bird", "Spinetail", "Pintail"; Misnomer: "Kingfisher" Aboriginal name: "birrubirruu" [yuwaalaraay] |
Sightings
Rainbow Bee-eaters are summer season visitors to the region where we lived until 2006, 20 km south of Narrabri, New South Wales. They appear in large numbers, hunting insects in groups of up to 10 at a time. Returned to the Narrabri area after their winter absence in September 2006. Despite unusually high temperatures in the spring of 2007, first seen by us only in late October. Spotted again in the same area in February 2008 and, after their winter migration, in September 2008.
In the 2007/08 season also seen by us 30 km east of Narrabri, in the foothills of the Nandewar Range. They returned from their migration to the north in September 2008.
Photos
View from behind of a male Rainbow Bee-eater preening itself (click on image for larger version)
Frontal view of a male Rainbow Bee-eater on a power line (click on image for larger version)
Frontal view of a female Rainbow Bee-eater (click on image for larger version)
Here an immature Rainbow Bee-eater; note the absence of streamers and the relatively pale colours compared to the adults shown above (click on image for larger version)
Nest
See also separate page on building a nest.
Entrance to a Rainbow Bee-eater's nest in a paddock (click on image for larger version)
Habits
Like other Bee-eaters elsewhere, Rainbow Bee-eaters also hunt in shallow waters, such as e.g. dams, see photo below.
Rainbow Bee-eater making a splash (photo courtesy of C. Kellenberg; click on image for larger version)
After catching an insect, Rainbow Bee-eaters will sit on a perch, turn their head to a side and then flip around in a sideways downward movement, smashing the insect against the branch that they are sitting on to kill it before eating it.
Seen by us flying very high, in groups of 10 or more, calling each other in flight. If not for these calls, we would not have noticed them; they were barely visible to the unaided eye.