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Rainbow Bee-eater
Immature profile, Ruffled Feathers
Rainbow Bee-eater
Immature x 4, backs
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Animals
Plants
Info
| Rainbow Bee-eater Immature profile, Ruffled Feathers | | Rainbow Bee-eater Immature x 4, backs | | ||
Animals Plants Info |
-ornatus.JPG "Rainbow Bee-eater (Merops (Merops) ornatus)") | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Chordates (Chordata) - Birds (Aves) | ||||||||||||
| Order: | Kingfishers (Coraciiformes) | |||||||||||||
| Family: | Bee-eater (Meropidae) iNaturalist Observation | |||||||||||||
| Species: | Rainbow Bee-eater (Merops (Merops) ornatus)| This Photo: | 🔍Immature, back🔎 | Thank you Petra Hanke for confirming the id of this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA), the Riverland and elsewhere One of the most colourful birds that visit. Smallish. Black, yellow, blue, green and brown/chestnut. Juveniles are have much less orange colours, being blue/green. They also don't have a tail extension, while the adult female's is shorter than the male's. They make their nest underground. We've seen flocks of up to 12 bee-eaters, mostly juveniles, which has been a real treat for us. While the adults have red eyes, the juveniles we've seen have black eyes, going brown to red as they age. They seem to ruffle their feathers, perhaps as some sort of defensive pose, or cooling? Or perhaps the bee gave him indigestion There was no wind in the photo's with the ruffled feathers. They look like woodswallows when in flight, but if the sun catches them, they are so beautiful with the chestnut under wing colours.
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