PLEASE! If you see any mistakes, I'm 100% sure that I have wrongly identified some birds.
So please let me know on my guestbook at the bottom of the page
Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, Merops leschenaulti, Bay-headed Bee-eater

The Chestnut-headed Bee-eater (Merops leschenaulti) a.k.a. Bay-headed Bee-eater is a near passerine bird in the bee-eater family Meropidae. It is a resident breeder in the Indian subcontinent and adjoining regions, ranging from India east to Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

This species, like other bee-eaters, is a richly coloured, slender bird. It is predominantly green, with blue on the rump and lower belly. Its face and throat are yellow with a black eye stripe, and the crown and nape are rich chestnut. The thin curved bill is black. Sexes are alike, but young birds are duller.

This species is 18–20 cm long; it lacks the two elongated central tail feathers possessed by most of its relatives.

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, Merops leschenaulti, Bay-headed Bee-eater

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, Merops leschenaulti, Bay-headed Bee-eater
Range map from www.oiseaux.net - Ornithological Portal Oiseaux.net
www.oiseaux.net is one of those MUST visit pages if you're in to bird watching. You can find just about everything there

Description

• Forehead, crown, nape, lower face and ear-coverts bright chestnut.

• Lores black, continued as a band under the eye and ear-coverts

• Wing-coverts, lower back and tertiaries green, the latter tipped with bluish

• Rump and upper tail-coverts pale shining blue; primaries and secondaries green, rufous on the inner webs, and all tipped dusky

• Central tail-feathers bluish on the outer, and green on the inner webs ; the others green, margined on the inner web with brown and all tipped dusky

• Sides of face, chin and throat yellow ; below this a broad band of chestnut extending to the sides of the neck and meeting the chestnut of the upper plumage ; below this again a short distinct band of black and then an ill-defined band of yellow

• Remainder of lower plumage green, tipped with blue, especially on the vent and under tail-coverts.

The Javan sub-species, M. l. quinticolor, differs in having the whole space from the bill down to the black pectoral band pure yellow without any chestnut, and in having the tail blue.

Race andamanensis found in the Andamans is slightly larger than the Indian race. Iris crimson ; bill black ; legs dusky black ; claws dark horn-colour.


A Chestnut-headed Bee-eater have caught an insect. The bird need to kill the insect before feeding it to the babies in the nest.

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, Merops leschenaulti, Bay-headed Bee-eater
An insect that needs to be killed before bringing it home
Yala, Sri Lanka - May 2017

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, Merops leschenaulti, Bay-headed Bee-eater
An insect that needs to be killed before bringing it home
Yala, Sri Lanka - May 2017

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, Merops leschenaulti, Bay-headed Bee-eater
An insect that needs to be killed before bringing it home
Yala, Sri Lanka - May 2017

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, Merops leschenaulti, Bay-headed Bee-eater
An insect that needs to be killed before bringing it home
Yala, Sri Lanka - May 2017

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, Merops leschenaulti, Bay-headed Bee-eater
An insect that needs to be killed before bringing it home
Yala, Sri Lanka - May 2017

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, Merops leschenaulti, Bay-headed Bee-eater
An insect that needs to be killed before bringing it home
Yala, Sri Lanka - May 2017

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, Merops leschenaulti, Bay-headed Bee-eater
An insect that needs to be killed before bringing it home
Yala, Sri Lanka - May 2017

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, Merops leschenaulti, Bay-headed Bee-eater
An insect that needs to be killed before bringing it home
Yala, Sri Lanka - May 2017

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, Merops leschenaulti, Bay-headed Bee-eater
An insect that needs to be killed before bringing it home
Yala, Sri Lanka - May 2017

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, Merops leschenaulti, Bay-headed Bee-eater
An insect that needs to be killed before bringing it home
Yala, Sri Lanka - May 2017

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, Merops leschenaulti, Bay-headed Bee-eater
An insect that needs to be killed before bringing it home

The Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, as the Green Bee-eater they build their nest under ground with a hole as an entrance. Below we can see a bird coming home with food

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, Merops leschenaulti, Bay-headed Bee-eater
Chestnut-headed Bee-eater with the dead insect outside the house
Yala, Sri Lanka - May 2017

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, Merops leschenaulti, Bay-headed Bee-eater
Chestnut-headed Bee-eater nest
Yala, Sri Lanka - May 2017

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, Merops leschenaulti, Bay-headed Bee-eater
Flying out again to catch more food.
Yala, Sri Lanka - May 2017

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, Merops leschenaulti, Bay-headed Bee-eater
Bee-eater and Kingfisher staple food
Yala, Sri Lanka - May 2017

There is a terrible noise in the woods, sometimes so you suffer from pain. That is the bugs the birds are eating. You can hear them but it is not easy to see them. But my Guide/ Driver managed to see one on a tree. I have no idea what the insect is called.


Habits
This is a bird which breeds in sub-tropical open woodland, often near water. It is most common in highland areas. As the name suggests, bee-eaters predominantly eat insects, especially bees, wasps and hornets, which are caught in the air by sorties from an open perch.

These bee-eaters are gregarious, nesting colonially in sandy banks. They make a relatively long tunnel in which the 5 to 6 spherical white eggs are laid. Both the male and the female take care of the eggs. These birds also feed and roost communally. The call is similar to that of the European Bee-eater.

Its scientific name commemorates the French botanist Jean Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour.

Listen to the Chestnut-headed Bee-eater


Conservation status
Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, Merops leschenaulti, Bay-headed Bee-eater
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2.
International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.



From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

www.birdforum.net


Sighted: (Date of first photo that I could use) 16th of May 2017
Location: Yala National Park, Sri Lanka


Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, Merops leschenaulti, Bay-headed Bee-eater
Chestnut-headed Bee-eater - Merops leschenaulti
16 May 2017 - Yala National Park, Sri Lanka

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, Merops leschenaulti, Bay-headed Bee-eater
Chestnut-headed Bee-eater - Merops leschenaulti
16 May 2017 - Yala National Park, Sri Lanka



Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, Merops leschenaulti, Bay-headed Bee-eater
Chestnut-headed Bee-eater - Merops leschenaulti
22 May 2017 - Bundala National Park

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, Merops leschenaulti, Bay-headed Bee-eater
Chestnut-headed Bee-eater - Merops leschenaulti
22 May 2017 - Bundala National Park

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, Merops leschenaulti, Bay-headed Bee-eater
Chestnut-headed Bee-eater - Merops leschenaulti
22 May 2017 - Yala National Park



PLEASE! If I have made any mistakes identifying any bird, PLEASE let me know on my guestbook



       
                  



                                       

You are visitor no.
To www.aladdin.st since December 2005

Visitors from different countries since 26th of September 2011