All species › Kingfishers, bee-eaters and rollers › Bee-eaters › European Bee-eater
European Bee-eater
Merops apiaster | Bijeneter | Abejaruco europeo
Arguably the most colourful bird in Europe: chestnut, gold and turquoise, with a scimitar bill and pointed tail streamers. Colonies announce themselves from far off with rolling calls delivered high overhead.
Voice
A liquid, rolling, far-carrying prruip or krroo-krroo, usually coming from an invisible flock passing high overhead. Given almost continuously in flight from late April to September; at the colony there is also a busy gurgling chatter.
Recording: Pascal Christe — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Identification
Slim, with long pointed triangular wings, elongated central tail feathers and a long slightly decurved bill. Chestnut crown and mantle grade into golden scapulars, the underparts are turquoise, and a yellow throat is cut off by a narrow black band below a black eye-stripe. Fast beats alternate with long glides; juveniles are greener and lack the streamers.
Confusion species
Roller is equally colourful but far bulkier and crow-like, with a straight black bill, sky-blue underparts and no yellow throat, and a heavy flapping flight; it also perches motionless on wires for long spells. High-flying Bee-eaters are regularly called Swifts or even waders on shape alone, until the voice arrives.
Habitat
Warm open and half-open country with sandy or loamy vertical faces: river banks, sunken lanes, sand pits and erosion gullies, surrounded by flowery grassland, olive groves or extensive arable full of large insects. Hunts bees, wasps and dragonflies high over the land.
Range and movements
Breeds around the Mediterranean, in eastern Europe and France; Spain is the stronghold, with colonies across almost the whole country. In the Netherlands a scarce but increasing colonist of sand pits and quarries, and an annual migrant. Winters in West and southern Africa.
- Breeding (summer)
- Passage
- Migration direction
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
Where and when to look
In Spain, from May to August, work sandy cuttings and telegraph wires in river valleys early in the morning, when birds perch low to preen and sun themselves. In the Netherlands in May and August, listen upwards: the rolling call almost always comes before the sighting.
Conservation status
Numerous in southern Europe and clearly expanding northwards, probably helped by warmer summers. Threats are the levelling or infilling of vertical banks, insecticides that strip out large insects, and local persecution by beekeepers. Working sand pits with steep faces have become essential for the northern colonies.