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The name Bee Eater was apparently first
used in 1668 by Charleton (Onomasticon,
p. 87) as a translation
of the Latin and Greek Merops, though he said that the bird was
rarely or never found in England - the European Bee Eater being
the Merops apiaster
of ornithology. The term Bee Eater being
appropriate (as is shown by its equivalent in cognate tongues-Danish, Biaeder;
German, Bienenfresser), it has been continued to be applied
to this species, and subsequently extended to others more or less closely
allied to it, forming a small but natural Family,
Meropidae.
They belong to the order Coraciiformes, and
are distinguished for their brilliant coloration, their graceful form,
and their active habits, since every species of Meropidae seems
to obtain its living by catching insects as they fly. The Bee-eaters are
birds of the Old World, and the majority of the species are peculiar to
the African region, while only a few inhabit the Palaearctic area, one
of them being the Merops apiaster,
named above, which appears
irregularly in Northern Europe in summer. This bird's first recorded
occurrence in the UK was in June 1793, when a flight of about twenty was
observed in Norfolk, and a specimen obtained at that time was preserved
in the Derby Museum at Liverpool until at least the 1800s (although I have
no knowlege of whether this specimen still exists). Between 1793
and the end of the the 19th Century the Bee Eater was reported to have
been a visitor the England more than 30 times. Currently in the early
21st Century, this bird still visits the UK, although sightings are rare
here.
Bee Eater Identification
The Bee Eater is certainly one of the most beautifully-coloured
birds ever found in the UK or indeed anywhere. No one who has ever
seen one of these birds will forget its rich chestnut crown and mantle
passing lower down into primrose, its white frontal band, the black patch
extending from the bill to the ear-coverts and the saffron throat bordered
with black. Most of the rest of the plumage is of a vivid greenish-blue
or bluish-green, and the middle pair of tail feathers are elongated and
attenuated in a way that is not seen in any other British land-bird.
Interesting Species of Bee Eater
This formation of the tail characterizes also the
single species of the genus Meropogon, this being the Purple-Bearded
Bee-eater, Meropogon forsteni, while the Swallow-tailed Bee-eater,Merops
hirundinaeus (previously or also known as Dicrocercus) has the
tail deeply forked, and in the Red Throated Bee Eater, Merops
bulocki (previously or also known as Melittophagus) the
tail is nearly even.
In the Genus Nyctiornis, contains two species,
both of who also have almost even tails. Within this genus the Red
Bearded Bee Eater ranges from Burma to Borneo. The other (the
largest of the whole Family), the Blue Bearded Bee Eater inhabits
India as well as Burma and Cochin China, and is readily distinguishable
by the remarkable elongated feathers of the gular tract.
Around six species of the Family show themselves
in the Cape of Africa or parts immediately adjacent, and one,
the Rainbow
Bee-eater, Merops ornatus,
occurs over almost the whole of Australia.
Homes of the Bee Eater
The Meropidae have much in common with the
Coraciidae (ROLLER),
Alcedinidae
(KINGFISHER), Momotidae
(MOTMOT), and especially with the Galbulidae
(JACAMAR), for
not only are there many anatomical resemblances between the birds of these
Families, but nearly all of them, so far as is known - the Rollers perhaps
being the chief exceptions - breed in holes made by themselves in a bank
of earth. These homes, or at least those of the species of the genus
Merops, it would seem, nearly always are created in a society or
group.
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