Fledging Bee-Eaters: The Fun Part!

Continuing from last week, LOU MEGENS concludes his account of breeding bee-eaters this year out of a home-made nest-box

- Gary Bralsford

NOW I was feeding white mealworms several times a day, and they were gladly taken. At sunset in the evening, I would go to observe the birds taking their ease. I saw several members of the small colony feeding, and sometimes they would disappear two at a time in the nest-box. Mealworms were their favourite, but also (frozen) crickets and live flies were fed. I saw a bee-eater killing a morio worm against the perch and manoeuvring it deftly into the air.

I was expecting him to eat it himself, but what did I see? He disappeared into the box with the morio worm in his beak and came out at once. It seemed impossible that a chick bee-eater of just two days could eat a morio worm, which would be bigger than the bird itself. Or would the parent bird cut it into pieces? I had no idea!

Feeding was very frequent. I do not know how many adults were involved in feeding, nor whether they were both male and female or solely the two females who had laid their eggs together in the nest, but I got the strong impression that almost everyone contributed his or her bit.