Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Blue-Tailed Bee-Eater

The blue-tailed bee-eater, found through much of southeastern Asia, is yellowish/green with a blue rump and tail and a chestnut throat. Its face has a narrow blue patch with a black eye-stripe. 
No question about this being a blue-tailed. Found in Bundala NP. 
Same with this one, found in Udawalawe NP. 
I struggled with wanting to identify some as chestnut-headed bee-eaters because of the prominence of red, but for several reasons ended up deciding they were blue-tailed instead. First, the red was not red enough and as extensive as it should be, and second, many have the narrow blue patch near the black eye-stripe. 
This one, found in Bundala NP, was a little more difficult to identify becuase it has pretty strong red and yellow. The blue patch near the eye-stripe does it for me. 
The same bird with a head-on shot showing the yellow. 
This one gave me the most problem of all. It does not have an obvious blue eye-patch. But by process of elimination, decided it has to be blue-tailed. 

1 comment:

  1. They look like something out of a coloring book--so many colors, so beautiful!

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