Profile
In flight
Tropical Birds
European Bee-eater
Merops apiaster
- common
- 40 km/h
- Starter
- Least Concern
A rainbow in flight. Catches bees mid-air and delivers mail with equal precision.
- Population
- ~18.4–28 million mature individuals globally, stable trend (BirdLife DataZone/IUCN 2018 estimate, 2024 reassessment retains LC)
- Habitat
- Open country in warm climates: broad river valleys, pastures and cultivated land with scattered trees or shelter-belts, sunny hillsides, meadows, clover fields, plains, and Mediterranean scrubland; sandy banks/cliffs used for colonial nest-burrows; occurs from sea level to about 3,000 m.
- Fun fact
- European Bee-eaters de-venom their prey by repeatedly whacking each captured bee or wasp against a branch to squeeze out the stinger and its venom sac before swallowing the insect whole.
- Range
- Breeds across southern and central Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia; a strong migrant, wintering almost entirely in tropical/southern Africa (a small population is resident year-round in southern Africa). Breeding range has been expanding markedly northward in recent decades into countries such as Germany and Switzerland.
- Diet
- Aerial insectivore, sallying from open perches to catch flying insects; diet is dominated by Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, hornets — roughly 69–82% of prey items, including honey bees), plus dragonflies and other large flying insects. Birds strike prey against a branch to remove the sting and expel venom before swallowing; a single bird may eat around 250 bees a day, though the overall impact on honey bee colonies is minor (less than 1% of workers in areas where they occur).
- Size
- 0.28 m
- Wingspan
- 0.465 m
- Lifespan
- 7 years
