Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters (Merops api­aster) have a broad dis­tri­b­u­tion cov­er­ing much of Eu­rope and Africa with range es­ti­mates up to 11,000,000 square km. These mi­gra­tory birds can be found as far north as Fin­land and range as far south as South Africa, ex­tend­ing east into some Asi­atic coun­tries as well. Most com­monly, Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters will breed and nest in south­ern Eu­rope, then mi­grate south dur­ing au­tumn and win­ter. (BirdLife In­ter­na­tional 2009, 2009; White, et al., 1978)

• Biogeographic Regions
• palearctic
  • native
• ethiopian
  • native

Habi­tat

Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters are com­monly found near fresh­wa­ter sys­tems and in­habit a va­ri­ety of habi­tat types such as for­est, sa­vanna, shrub­land, grass­land, and agri­cul­tural areas. The habi­tat for nest­ing can be spe­cific in­volv­ing only river sys­tems or gravel pits with steep ex­posed banks. Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters have also been found to dig bur­rows di­rectly into the ground. Food avail­abil­ity can de­ter­mine the habi­tat oc­cu­pied by Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters. Many agri­cul­tural fields use bee-hives for pol­li­na­tion and M. api­aster will fre­quent those areas. (BirdLife In­ter­na­tional 2009, 2009; White, et al., 1978; Yosef, et al., 2006; BirdLife In­ter­na­tional 2009, 2009; White, et al., 1978; Yosef, et al., 2006)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• desert or dune
• savanna or grassland
• forest
• scrub forest

• Other Habitat Features
• agricultural
• riparian

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters are mid-sized in­sec­ti­vores that have dark, thick, and slightly down­ward curved bills. A bright yel­low chin and throat patch meet a blue chest that ex­tends down to the flanks and belly. Dark lores and eye-stripe are con­trasted by a white patch above the upper mandible and lower white eye-stripe ex­tend­ing from the lower mandible. A dark chest­nut color cov­ers the crown and nape, be­com­ing lighter in color on the back. Upper tail coverts are vari­able, rang­ing from green to blue, with most of the tail being blue. Wing lengths av­er­age 44 cm for males and 49 cm for fe­males. Weights of Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters are sim­i­lar in males and fe­males and range from 44 to 78 g. Total body length ranges from 27 to 30 cm.

Males and fe­males, very sim­i­lar in col­oration, can be dis­tin­guished by the hue of the greater coverts, being a chest­nut in males and green­ish-blue in fe­males, and by the me­dian coverts, where males are a chest­nut and fe­males have a green­ish hue. Ju­ve­niles can be dis­tin­guished from adults by the color of the iris. In ma­ture adults the iris is a vi­brant red and ju­ve­niles will have a gray­ish-olive-red color. Also, the chest­nut color found in adults is only green in ju­ve­niles. (Les­sells and Oven­den, 1989; Yosef, et al., 2006)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes alike

• Range mass

  44 to 78 g

  1.55 to 2.75 oz

• Average mass

  52 g

  1.83 oz

• Range length

  27 to 30 cm

  10.63 to 11.81 in

• Average length

  28 cm

  11.02 in

• Range wingspan

  44 to 49 cm

  17.32 to 19.29 in

• Average wingspan

  46 cm

  18.11 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters are monog­a­mous and will gen­er­ally stay to­gether from year to year if both sur­vive. Courtship feed­ing has been ob­served of some male Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters, where the male will bring food to the fe­male a cou­ple days be­fore, dur­ing, and after egg lay­ing. Roughly 20% of nest­ing pairs have 1 to 4 helpers that ex­hibit co­op­er­a­tive breed­ing, where a non-breed­ing male, likely a close rel­a­tive, will as­sist the nest­ing pair by sit­ting on the nest and catch­ing prey for young. (Avery, et al., 1988; Hoi, et al., 2002; Horváth, et al., 1992)

• Mating System
• monogamous
• cooperative breeder

In cen­tral Eu­rope, most Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters re­turn to their breed­ing range in late April or early May. They will mate in May and dig out bur­rows around 1 m deep in sand pits or steep river banks. Fe­males lay 4 to 7 eggs in late May to early June. They are laid in 2 day in­ter­vals and in­cu­bated 3 to 4 weeks be­fore hatch­ing asyn­chro­nously. Be­fore young fledge asyn­chro­nously at around 4 weeks of age they un­dergo weight loss to re­duce their weight closer to that of an adult. Asyn­chro­nous Hatch­ing and fledg­ing is thought to help off­set sib­ling ri­valry and allow bet­ter care of young with a vari­able food source like fly­ing in­sects. Ju­ve­niles be­come in­de­pen­dent at 1 to 2 months of age. Sex­ual ma­tu­rity is reached within the first year, though ju­ve­niles are not al­ways suc­cess­ful at breed­ing in their first year. Ju­ve­niles may come back to the same colonies and nest near rel­a­tives such as par­ents or sib­lings. These ju­ve­niles may be­come fam­ily helpers if they fail to nest.

They are ei­ther soli­tary or colo­nial nesters. One study found a neg­a­tive ef­fect on nest suc­cess with in­creas­ing colony size. Iso­lated pairs with equal clutch size had a higher rate of nest­ing suc­cess. It is thought that colo­nial breed­ing could still be worth­while if it in­creases adult sur­vival. (Avery, et al., 1988; Les­sells and Avery, 1989; Les­sells and Oven­den, 1989)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• oviparous

• Breeding interval

  European bee-eaters breed once yearly.

• Breeding season

  European bee-eaters breed between May and June.

• Range eggs per season

  4 to 7

• Average eggs per season

  5

• Range time to hatching

  3 to 4 weeks

• Range fledging age

  28 to 32 days

• Range time to independence

  1 to 2 months

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  1 years

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  1 years

Both male and fe­male Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters par­tic­i­pate in ex­ca­vat­ing the un­der­ground nest­ing bur­row. After the eggs are laid, the pair shares in­cu­ba­tion re­spon­si­bil­i­ties. Chicks are born al­tri­cial, with­out feath­ers and eyes closed, and rely on sig­nif­i­cant parental care for sur­vival. The male "helper" will also share in­cu­ba­tion and feed­ing du­ties, but is not as re­li­able as the breed­ing pair. Both par­ents pro­vide food and pro­tec­tion for young until fledg­ing. Some male Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters will con­tinue to feed the fe­male for sev­eral days dur­ing and after egg lay­ing.

Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters ex­hibit very spe­cific feed­ing be­hav­iors that are dif­fi­cult for young birds to learn. Breed­ing pairs will con­tinue to feed fledg­lings until the young learn the skills to suc­cess­fully for­age for them­selves. (Les­sells and Avery, 1989; Les­sells, et al., 1994)

• Parental Investment
• altricial
• male parental care
• female parental care
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • male
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • male
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
    • female
• pre-independence
  • provisioning
    • male
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
    • female
• post-independence association with parents
• extended period of juvenile learning

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters have been doc­u­mented to live up to 5.9 years in the wild. ("Merops api­aster Lin­naeus 1758", 2009)

• Range lifespan
  Status: wild

  5.9 (high) years

Be­hav­ior

Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters are mi­gra­tory, di­ur­nal birds that spend most of their time for­ag­ing for food. It is com­mon to see them sit­ting at a perch scan­ning for prey, then fly­ing out catch­ing a prey item and com­ing back to the perch to sub­due and con­sume it. These birds are often found nest­ing in colonies, but may also nest singly as well. Mixed colonies of Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters and blue cheeked bee-eaters (Merops per­si­cus) can be found for­ag­ing to­gether with­out com­pe­ti­tion be­cause of min­i­mal diet over­lap. (Bur­ton and Bur­ton, 2002; Kossenko and Fry, 1998)

• Key Behaviors
• terricolous
• flies
• diurnal
• motile
• migratory
• solitary
• territorial
• colonial

• Range territory size

  0.7 to 8 m^2

Home Range

Often found in colonies, ter­ri­to­ries are formed 0.7 to 8 m around nest­ing sites dur­ing breed­ing sea­son.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

The fam­ily Merop­i­dae (bee-eaters), most species being colo­nial, often will ex­hibit in­ter­spe­cific and in­traspe­cific com­mu­ni­ca­tion. Like most colo­nial species, Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters are very vocal while within the colony. Pairs often call to lo­cate or oth­er­wise com­mu­ni­cate to each other. Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters have a lim­ited reper­toire, which con­sists of sev­eral, slight vari­a­tions on a "preep" call. This call is given in rapid suc­ces­sion while in so­cial groups, and takes on a "bub­bly" char­ac­ter­is­tic dur­ing courtship.

Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters have been found to ex­hibit in­traspe­cific “help­ing”. A nest­ing pair may ac­cept a third party to help with in­cu­bat­ing or feed­ing to in­crease nest­ing suc­cess. This so­cial com­mu­ni­ca­tion may be be­tween re­lated in­di­vid­u­als and help fit­ness.

Mixed flocks of Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters and blue cheeked bee-eaters (Merops per­si­cus) have been found to have bet­ter breed­ing suc­cess as a re­sult of mixed species for­ag­ing off­set­ting in­ter­spe­cific com­pe­ti­tion. In­ter­spe­cific com­mu­ni­ca­tion has also been found to be de­fen­sive dur­ing nest­ing, in­volv­ing fight­ing and avoid­ance, whereas in­traspe­cific com­mu­ni­ca­tion in­cluded sun­ning, preen­ing, and mob­bing of preda­tors. The ben­e­fit of being a so­cial com­mu­nal species is hav­ing more eyes on the look­out for dan­ger; Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters will use vocal com­mu­ni­ca­tion to warn oth­ers about dan­ger.

Like all birds, Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters per­ceive their en­vi­ron­ment through vi­sual, au­di­tory, tac­tile and chem­i­cal stim­uli. (Kossenko and Fry, 1998; Pe­trescu and Adam, 2001; White, et al., 1978)

• Communication Channels
• acoustic

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

As their name im­plies, Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters' diet con­sists of bees rang­ing in size from large to small (Hy­menoptera), but also in­cludes drag­on­flies (On­do­nata) and other fly­ing in­sects. Bee-eaters are quick on the wing and agile for catch­ing fly­ing in­sects. When catch­ing in­sects they will grasp them by the mid­sec­tion, fly back to perch, and hit them against their perch until move­ment ceases. When catch­ing sting­ing in­sects they will im­mo­bi­lize them and hit the sting against the perch to pull or rip it out, and then toss the prey up ver­ti­cally to swal­low. Breed­ing pairs of Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters con­tinue to feed their fledg­lings until the young birds learn to suc­cess­fully catch and eat in­sects. (Bur­ton and Bur­ton, 2002; Krebs and Avery, 1984)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • insectivore

• Animal Foods
• insects

Pre­da­tion

Mont­pel­lier snakes (Malpolon mon­spes­su­lanus), ocel­lated lizards (Timon lep­idus), and black kites (Mil­vus mi­grans) are com­mon preda­tors of Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters. Nestlings are most vul­ner­a­ble be­cause ground bur­rows are eas­ily ac­cessed by snakes and lizards. (Bur­ton and Bur­ton, 2002)

• Known Predators

  • Montpellier snakes (Malpolon monspessulanus)
  • Ocellated lizards (Timon lepidus)
  • Black kites (Milvus migrans)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters are known as ecosys­tem en­gi­neers be­cause of their ef­fects on arid en­vi­ron­ments through bur­row­ing breed­ing be­hav­ior. Three ways have been sug­gested re­gard­ing how Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters im­pact the en­vi­ron­ment: (i) bur­row­ing and soil re­moval al­lows rain, sun­light, and nu­tri­ents to pen­e­trate soil. (ii) aban­doned bur­rows pro­vide shel­ter for other species to col­o­nize the area (iii) deep bur­rows pro­vide ac­cess to in­ver­te­brate prey items which can in­crease food web com­plex­ity.

The mi­cro­cli­mate that is cre­ated by these bur­rows can be sig­nif­i­cantly dif­fer­ent from the macro­cli­mate. Some species that re-use bur­rows made by Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters in­clude Eu­ro­pean rollers (Cora­cias gar­ru­lus), lit­tle owls (Athene noc­tua), pied wag­tails (Motacilla alba), and rock spar­rows (Petro­nia petro­nia).

Analy­sis of ac­tive Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters' nests de­tected sev­eral species of mites (chicken mites, trop­i­cal fowl mites) and lar­vae of Diptera, bee­tles (Tene­bri­on­idae fam­ily), and moths and but­ter­flies (Lep­i­doptera order). (Casas-Crivlle and Valera, 2005)

• Ecosystem Impact
• creates habitat
• soil aeration

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters have not been recorded as a species that ben­e­fits hu­mans in an eco­nomic man­ner. They are unique and beau­ti­ful birds that at­tract many bird­ers and pho­tog­ra­phers.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters are seen as a pest by many farm­ers in cen­tral and south­ern Eu­rope. These birds are at­tracted to high den­si­ties of cul­ti­vated bees, and are fre­quently per­se­cuted by farm­ers. Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters may cause sig­nif­i­cant dam­age to a hive if they prey upon the queen. (Al-Ghzawi, et al., 2009)

• Negative Impacts
• crop pest

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Eu­ro­pean bee-eaters are listed as a species of least con­cern by IUCN. Al­though their num­bers have been de­clin­ing over the past decade, the pop­u­la­tion (480,000 to 1,000,000 breed­ing in­di­vid­u­als) is still well above any level of threat. (BirdLife In­ter­na­tional 2009, 2009)

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• CITES

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Tyler Petroelje (au­thor), North­ern Michi­gan Uni­ver­sity, Alec Lind­say (ed­i­tor), North­ern Michi­gan Uni­ver­sity, Rachelle Ster­ling (ed­i­tor), Spe­cial Pro­jects.

Ref­er­ences

2009. "Merops api­aster Lin­naeus 1758" (On-line). En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Life. Ac­cessed De­cem­ber 17, 2010 at http://​www.​eol.​org/​pages/​1050051.

Al-Ghzawi, A., S. Za­itoun, H. Shan­nag. 2009. In­ci­dence and Ge­o­graph­i­cal Dis­tri­b­u­tion of Hon­ey­bee (Apis mel­lif­era L.) Pests in Jor­dan. Ann. soc. en­to­mol. Fr., 45/3: 305-308.

Avery, M., J. Krebs, A. Hous­ton. 1988. Eco­nom­ics of courtship-feed­ing in the Eu­ro­pean bee-eater (Merops api­aster). Be­hav­ioral Ecol­ogy and So­cio­bi­ol­ogy, 23/2: 61-67.

BirdLife In­ter­na­tional 2009, 2009. "Merops api­aster" (On-line). In: IUCN 2009. IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species.. Ac­cessed Jan­u­ary 12, 2010 at http://​www.​iucnredlist.​org/​apps/​redlist/​details/​142227/​0.

Bur­ton, M., R. Bur­ton. 2002. Bee-eaters. Pp. 180 in B Hoare, T Cooke, eds. In­ter­na­tional Wildlife En­cy­clo­pe­dia, Vol. 1, Third Edi­tion. Ter­ry­town, New York: Mar­shall Cavendish.

Casas-Crivlle, A., F. Valera. 2005. The Eu­ro­pean bee-eater (Merops api­aster) as an ecosys­tem en­gi­neer in arid en­v­iorn­ments. Jour­nal of Arid En­v­iorn­ments, 60/2: 227-238.

Heneberg, P. 2009. Soil pen­e­tra­bil­ity as a key fac­tor af­fect­ing the nest­ing of bur­row­ing birds. Eco­log­i­cal Re­search, 24/2: 453-459.

Hoi, H., C. Hoi, J. Kistofik, A. Darolava. 2002. Re­pro­duc­tive suc­cess de­creases with colony size in the Eu­ro­pean bee-eater. Ethol­ogy Ecol­ogy & Evo­lu­tion, 14: 99-110.

Horváth, G., M. Fis­cher, T. Szekely. 1992. The de­liv­ery of sur­plus prey to the nest by a pair of bee-eaters (Merops api­aster). Ornis Hung, 2: 11-16.

Kossenko, S., C. Fry. 1998. Com­pe­ti­tion and co­ex­is­tence of the Eu­ro­pean Bee-eater Merops api­aster and the Blue-cheeked Bee-eater Merops periscus in Asia. Ibis, 140/1: 2-13.

Krebs, J., M. Avery. 1985. Cen­tral Place For­ag­ing in the Eu­ro­pean Bee-eater, Merops api­aster. Jour­nal of An­i­mal Ecol­ogy, 54/2: 459-472.

Krebs, J., M. Avery. 1984. Chick growth and prey qual­ity in the Eu­ro­pean Bee-eater (Merops api­aster). Oe­colo­gia, 64/3: 363-368.

Les­sells, C., M. Avery, J. Krebs. 1994. Non­ran­dom dis­per­sal of kin: why do Eu­ro­pean bee-eater (Merops api­aster) broth­ers nest close to­gether?. Be­hav­ior Ecol­ogy, 5: 105-113.

Les­sells, C., M. Avery. 1989. Hatch­ing Asyn­chrony in Eu­ro­pean Bee-eaters Merops api­aster. Jour­nal of An­i­mal Ecol­ogy, 58/3: 815-835.

Les­sells, C., G. Oven­den. 1989. Her­i­tabil­ity of Wing Length and Weight in Eu­ro­pean Bee-Eaters (Merops api­aster). The Con­dor, 91/1: 210-214.

Pe­trescu, A., C. Adam. 2001. In­ter­spe­cific Re­la­tions in the Pop­u­la­tions of Merops api­aster L. (Aves: Coraci­iformes) of South­ern Ro­ma­nia. Travaux du Mu­seum Na­tional d' His­toire Na­turelle, 43: 305-322.

White, F., G. Bartholomew, J. Kin­ney. 1978. Phys­i­o­log­i­cal and Eco­log­i­cal Cor­re­lates of Tun­nel Nest­ing in the Eu­ro­pean Bee-Eater, Merops api­aster. Phys­i­o­log­i­cal Zo­ol­ogy, 51/2: 140-154.

Yosef, R., M. Markovets, L. Mitchell, P. Try­janowski. 2006. Body con­di­tion as a de­ter­mi­nant for stopover in bee-eaters (Merops api­aster) on spring mi­gra­tion in the Arava Val­ley, south­ern Is­rael. Jour­nal of Arid En­v­iorn­ments, 64/3: 401-411.