It looks hand-painted. The European bee-eater (Merops apiaster) is one of the most colourful birds in Europe and every spring it also comes to Italy to nest, after a long journey from Africa. If you get the chance, go and watch it with binoculars, but with ethics and respect.
How to recognise the bee-eater
It is about 25-29 cm long, has a wingspan of about 44-49 cm and weighs between 45 and 80 grams. In the adult the upperparts are orange-brown and tawny, the throat is yellow, a black band runs through the eye and the underparts are blue and green. In young birds the upperparts tend to be greener.
Its shape in flight is not hard to pick out: a long curved bill, almost triangular wings and a long tail, with the two central feathers projecting a few centimetres in adults. It makes a sound like “pruik pruik” which, once you learn to listen for it, will stay in your memory.
When it arrives in Italy and where it lives
It spends the winter mainly in Africa south of the Sahara. It usually reaches Italy between late April and early May and leaves between August and September, with total journeys that can exceed 15,000 km. Colonies can empty as early as August, so the best time to see it is between May and July.
It loves open, sunny habitats with scattered trees, near rivers, farmland and quarries, as long as there are walls suitable for digging. In recent decades it has become increasingly widespread: estimates for Italy have risen from 2,000-4,000 pairs to about 7,000-13,000.
How it nests: colonies and tunnels in the earth
It lives in groups and takes part in group actions such as defence, so it is hard to find solitary individuals, although some pairs nest alone. It prefers vertical sandy or clay walls, often on riverbanks and in quarries, and more rarely flat ground. There both parents dig a tunnel 6-7 cm wide and from 1 to more than 2 metres long, ending in a small “chamber” where the eggs are laid, rather like the common kingfisher.
The female usually lays 4-7 eggs, which the parents incubate in turn for about 20 days. The young leave the nest after about a month, but are still fed for a few more weeks. In about one pair in five “helpers” also arrive, often relatives that have failed to breed. In a colony in Lazio a “false nest” was even found, connected to two real nests, which perhaps served to protect them from predators.
What do bee-eaters eat? Bees and much more
It feeds on insects caught in flight, often starting from a perch: as well as bees it takes wasps, bumblebees, dragonflies, beetles and cicadas. It is very fond of bees, hence the name apiaster, and in a Spanish study Hymenoptera made up about 70-80% of its diet. It can eat more than 200 insects a day.
It is not immune to stings, so it beats and rubs its prey against a perch to discharge the venom and remove the sting before swallowing it.
Are bee-eaters a problem for beekeepers?
This is why it is not much loved by beekeepers, especially when it hunts near hives. Its overall impact on bee populations, however, appears small: according to the studies cited in species accounts, it eats less than 1% of the worker bees in the areas where it lives.
How I photograph bee-eaters
In the village where I live it arrives between late April and early May. A month before they arrive I pick out a likely nesting area and set up perches, working out where the sun rises and sets, all for the sake of the light.
Then, watching them from very far away, I try to work out when the pairs have formed, when they have built the nest and even when they are incubating. Only then do I begin my approach, with ethics and “camouflage”, without causing disturbance, because I believe you have to be more of a naturalist than a photographer. Sadly, for some people that is not the case.
What more can I say: if you get the chance, go and watch them with binoculars, but please with ethics and respect. Think of the effort it takes them to get here. You can find other birds in mybird gallery and in the article on thehoopoe.
