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bee-eater

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bee-eater

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The bee-eater is one of the most colourful birds found in Europe. Bee-eaters live in colonies, feeding on a variety of insects, chiefly wasps and bees. They catch their prey in mid-flight and rub it on the ground or on a branch before eating it, either to kill it or to remove its sting.

Brightly-coloured bird Merops apiaster, family Meropidae, order Coraciiformes, found in Africa, southern Europe, and Asia. Bee-eaters are slender, with chestnut, yellow, and blue-green plumage, a long bill and pointed wings, and a flight like that of the swallow, which they resemble in shape. They feed on bees, wasps, and other insects, and nest in colonies in holes dug out with their long bills in sandy river banks.



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And some bee-eater birds use sharp hooks on their bills to stab their siblings.
Ornithologists observed that African bee-eater birds sacrifice their own reproductive opportunities to help their kin raise offspring (135: 364) and that male red-winged blackbirds with familiar neighbors attract larger harems and thus have more offspring (136: 311).
During breeding season, a reproductively active pair will enlist as many as two helper birds to help build a new nest and forage for bees, butterfiles and other insects that make up the bee-eater diet.
 
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