Bee-eaters at Lake Gwelup, Perth, early Nov 2024

The Rainbow Bee-eater (Merops ornatus) is a vibrant, slender bird native to Australia and parts of Southeast Asia. Known for its dazzling plumage, it displays a spectrum of colors, including green, blue, gold, and orange, with a distinctive black eye stripe and a forked tail. These agile birds are often seen in open woodlands, sandy riverbanks, and grasslands, where they hunt flying insects, especially bees and wasps. Remarkably, they remove the stingers from their prey by striking them against a surface before consuming them. Rainbow Bee-eaters are migratory, breeding in Australia during spring and summer, often nesting in burrows dug into sandy soil.

This colony of Bee-eaters was very obliging at Lake Gwelup. So much so, its location was marked on Google Maps, so it was very easy to find!










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