There are 27 species of bee-eaters and I'd previously seen three of the species: the green bee-eater and blue-tailed bee-eater in Sri Lanka and the white-fronted bee-eater in Zimbabwe and Zambia. I added a fourth to my list in June, the European bee-eater in the cork oak tree forests near the Tagus Estuary in Portugal.
The European bee-eater has a resident population in southern Africa and otherwise is highly migratory, wintering in portions of west, central and southern Africa and breeding in portions of north Africa, southern and central Europe and southwestern and central western Asia.
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| From Wikipedia. |
It is a patchwork of color with a yellow throat, blue belly, brown and yellow upperparts which can turn to blue and green non-breeding, shoulders tending to gold (male) or green (female) and a black beak.
They nest in sandy banks, usually near rivers.
Such a beautiful bird. It was fun to see and to connect to previous bee-eaters we have seen.
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