photo sharing and upload picture albums photo forums search pictures popular photos photography help login
Doug J | all galleries >> Birds, Birds, Birds >> Non-passeriformes Gallery > Northern Carmine Bee-eater
previous | next

Northern Carmine Bee-eater

Scientific name: Merops nubicus
Order: Coraciiformes
Family: Meropidae

Click for map of bird's location
Press the back button on the browser to return to this page

The Southern Carmine Bee-eater usually habitates low-altitude river valleys and floodplains, preferring vertical banks suitable for tunneling when breeding, but readily digging vertical burrows in the level surface of small salt islands. This is a highly sociable species, gathering in large flocks, in or out of breeding season. They roost communally in trees or reedbeds, and disperse widely during the day.

This is migratory species, spending the breeding season, between August and November, in Zimbabwe, before moving south to South Africa for the summer months, and the migrating to equatorial Africa from March to August. Their diet is made up primarily of bees and other flying insects, and their major hunting strategy involves hawking flying insects from perch. Perches may include branches of vegetation or even the backs of large animals.

Canon EOS 10D ,Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
1/200s f/4.0 at 200mm ISO 800 with Flash hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time31-May-2003 10:40:59
MakeCanon
ModelEOS 10D
Flash UsedYes
Focal Length200 mm
Exposure Time1/200 sec
Aperturef/4
ISO Equivalent800
Exposure Bias-0.33
White Balance
Metering Modematrix (5)
JPEG Quality (3)
Exposure Programshutter priority (2)
Focus Distance

other sizes: small medium original auto
comment
Brent 03-Sep-2005 18:02
Probably Northern Carmine Bee-eater.