Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

The green bee-eater has a wide range in the east­ern hemi­sphere. The green bee-eater is a res­i­dent in west and north­east Africa, in arid areas. From Africa, its range ex­tends through the Mid­dle East, Egypt and Is­rael, and Iran. Green bee-eaters are also com­mon through­out India and south­west China. In ad­di­tion, the green bee-eater’s range ex­tends into South­east Asia in coun­tries such as Thai­land and Cam­bo­dia. Green bee-eaters do not mi­grate, but they can have sea­sonal move­ments de­pend­ing on rain­fall and food avail­abil­ity. (Clements, 1981; Mo­hamed Ali and Abdou Taha, 2012; Rob­son, 2000)

• Biogeographic Regions
• palearctic
• oriental
• ethiopian

Habi­tat

The green bee-eater is found in a va­ri­ety of habi­tats through­out its range, from sea level to 1600 me­ters in el­e­va­tion. Its pre­ferred habi­tat con­sists of an arid en­vi­ron­ment, es­pe­cially in its range in Africa. Green bee-eaters pre­fer to in­habit open areas with bushes or trees for perch­ing. Spe­cific habi­tats that green bee-eaters can be found in in­clude habi­tats like arid wood­lands and dry riverbeds. The green bee-eater cre­ates tun­nels in sandy banks for its nests, so it needs a sandy en­vi­ron­ment to breed. How­ever, the green bee-eater can also in­habit areas where there is some human ac­tiv­ity. Es­pe­cially in the more east­ern edge of their range, they can be found in the thick­ets around crop fields and in the open pas­tures or farm­land. How­ever, they can­not be found in places with high lev­els of human ac­tiv­ity. Over­all, the green bee-eater tends to be a fairly tame bird, and is com­monly seen through­out its range. (Mishra, 2019; Rob­son, 2000; Was­nik, et al., 2014)

• Habitat Regions
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• desert or dune
• chaparral
• forest
• scrub forest

• Other Habitat Features
• suburban
• agricultural

• Range elevation

  1600 (high) m

  5249.34 (high) ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

The green bee-eater is a smaller bird with bril­liant plumage all year round. The ma­jor­ity of its body is a vivid emer­ald green color, with the most green being on its belly. There is some vari­a­tion in ap­pear­ance in the 8 sub­species of the green bee-eater. The cap of the bird can vary in color, de­pend­ing on the sub­species, from green to gold or red­dish brown. Some sub­species' green wings have a gold red-brown tint to them. The throat of the sub­species of the green bee-eater can also vary, with sub­species in the Ara­bian Penin­sula hav­ing a blue throat, sub­species in North Africa and South­east Asia hav­ing a green throat, sub­species in Sudan hav­ing a yel­low throat, and sub­species in India hav­ing a pale blue throat. All green bee-eaters have a dis­tinct fea­ture called a "gor­get," which is a black stripe around the throat of the bird. These birds also have a dis­tinct black stripe that runs along the side of their face through their crim­son col­ored eye. Green bee-eaters have two dis­tinct cen­tral tail stream­ers, black in color, that ex­tend about 6 cm. Their beak, long and curved slightly down­wards, is adapted for catch­ing in­sects.

There is some sex­ual di­mor­phism in green bee-eaters. Male birds tend to have brighter plumage over­all. The ju­ve­nile birds lack the black tail stream­ers and gor­get. Ju­ve­niles are duller in color and their throat and cheeks are buffy col­ored and the rest of their body is a duller green. (Mishra, 2019; Rob­son, 2000; Was­nik, et al., 2014)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• male more colorful

• Range mass

  15 to 20 g

  0.53 to 0.70 oz

• Range length

  16 to 18 cm

  6.30 to 7.09 in

• Range wingspan

  8.9 to 9.7 cm

  3.50 to 3.82 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

The green bee-eater is a monog­a­mous bird. They have one brood per year dur­ing their breed­ing sea­son, which is from March until June. The green bee-eater nests in colonies of about 10-15 other pairs of birds, and re­cruit helpers to as­sist with for­ag­ing for food and pro­tec­tion of the eggs and nestlings. No courtship dis­plays have been recorded for the green bee-eater. (Mishra, 2019; Was­nik, et al., 2014)

• Mating System
• monogamous
• cooperative breeder

The green bee-eater pro­duces one brood per year dur­ing its breed­ing sea­son, which starts in March and ends in June. The green bee-eater first ex­ca­vates a tun­nel where they will lay their eggs. They ex­ca­vate the tun­nel most often in the side of river­banks, and some­times on the ground, in places that have loose sandy soil that are easy to ex­ca­vate. The green bee-eater makes their nest cav­i­ties in colonies of about 10-15 other pairs. The mean di­am­e­ter of the en­trance hole of the tun­nel that the green bee-eater ex­ca­vates for their nest is 8.9 cm. The mean length of the tun­nel from the en­trance to the nest­ing cav­ity is 105 cm.

After ex­ca­vat­ing the tun­nel, the green bee-eater lays its eggs and in­cu­bates them. The av­er­age clutch size of the green bee-eater is 4 eggs, but 3 eggs is also a com­mon clutch size. Clutches of 5 and 6 eggs are less com­mon. Their eggs are white, small, and sphere-shaped. The eggs usu­ally weigh about 2-5 grams, and the av­er­age di­men­sions of the eggs are 20.91-21.09 mm in length by 13.89-14.11 mm in width. Both par­ents in­cu­bate the eggs. The in­cu­ba­tion pe­riod of the green bee-eater typ­i­cally lasts 14-16 days, and then the eggs hatch.

The green bee-eater lays its eggs asyn­chro­nously, mean­ing not at the same time. The eggs also hatch asyn­chro­nously, usu­ally over the course of one or a few days, in the order that the eggs were laid. This al­lows the stronger nestlings to re­ceive more food and re­sources, so the weaker nestlings may die. When they hatch, the nestlings are naked and pink. They weigh an av­er­age of 3.16 grams when they hatch. The nestlings fledge after about 20-25 days and the av­er­age weight at that time is 20.75 grams. About 25 days after hatch­ing, the nestlings have de­vel­oped their feath­ers and re­sem­ble adult birds. (Asokan, 1995; Asokan, et al., 2010; Mishra, 2019)

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

• Breeding interval

  One brood per year

• Breeding season

  March-June

• Range eggs per season

  2 to 6

• Range time to hatching

  14 to 16 days

• Range fledging age

  20 to 25 days

The green bee-eater has high parental in­vest­ment in its off­spring. Be­fore lay­ing the eggs, the male and fe­male help ex­ca­vate the tun­nel and nest cav­ity, usu­ally in the bank of a dry riverbed. They ex­ca­vate the cav­ity at a sloped angle so it is not pos­si­ble to see the nest­ing area from the out­side, as a de­fense against preda­tors. The tun­nel to the nest cav­ity is long, with the mean length being 105 cm. Dur­ing in­cu­ba­tion, both the male and fe­male take turns sit­ting on the eggs, split­ting the time about equally. The other will sit out­side the nest cav­ity and watch for preda­tors. When guard­ing their nest cav­ity, the green bee-eater will usu­ally sit in veg­e­ta­tion close the nest and watch for preda­tors, and will dive at per­ceived preda­tors.

The green bee-eater is a co­op­er­a­tive breeder. Be­fore egg lay­ing is fin­ished, the male green bee-eater will choose “helpers” for their nest, which are other in­di­vid­ual green bee-eaters. The helpers' main job is to bring food for the nestlings, but they also help de­fend the nest against preda­tors. In ad­di­tion to the helpers, after the eggs hatch, both the male and fe­male bee-eaters pro­vide food for their young. (Asokan, et al., 2010; Burt, 2002)

• Parental Investment
• altricial
• male parental care
• female parental care
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • male
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • male
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

There has been no stud­ies about lifes­pan in green bee-eaters.

Be­hav­ior

Green bee-eaters are so­cia­ble birds and are often seen in groups. Be­cause they are monog­a­mous, green bee-eaters will often be seen in pairs with their mate as well as in a larger group. The green bee-eater breeds in colonies with 10-15 other pairs of birds to help with pro­tec­tion of their young.

Green bee-eaters spend about half their time perch­ing and scan­ning dur­ing the day. They are a sit-and-wait preda­tor, so they will often perch on ca­bles, shrubs, or trees, scan­ning for in­sect prey. Green bee-eaters’ main feed­ing times are in the morn­ing and in the evening, which is sim­i­lar to most birds. In the morn­ing, green bee-eaters can often be seen tak­ing dust baths in groups to keep their plumage in good con­di­tion. They also preen them­selves dur­ing the day, and take time to rest when the day reaches its hottest point. They rest in dense trees and shrubs. Green bee-eaters can often be seen perch­ing on branches very close to each other in large groups. (Ali and Asokan, 2015; Burt, 2002; Mishra, 2019; Was­nik, et al., 2014)

• Key Behaviors
• flies
• diurnal
• motile
• social

Home Range

Ter­ri­tory sizes and de­fense has not been stud­ied for green bee-eaters. How­ever, the white fronted bee-eater (Merops bul­lock­oides), a colo­nial breeder like the green bee-eater, de­fends for­ag­ing ter­ri­to­ries to­gether as a clan. The size of the ter­ri­tory de­pends on the size of the clan. Green bee-eaters do de­fend their nests from preda­tors. They will dive at po­ten­tial preda­tors, such as lizards. The green bee-eater lives in har­mony with many other bird species through­out its range such as the com­mon myna (Acridotheres tris­tis), rock pi­geon (Columba livia), spot­ted dove (Spi­lopelia chi­nen­sis), and rose ringed para­keet (Psit­tac­ula krame­ria). (Burt, 2002; Heg­ner and Emlen, 1987; Mishra, 2019)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

The green bee-eater, a sit-and-wait preda­tor, uses its vi­sion while sit­ting to scan and look for prey. Like most birds, green bee-eaters have four opsins in their retina, and they use mainly vi­sion to hunt and pro­tect their nests. One im­por­tant thing that green bee-eaters use their vi­sion for is to per­ceive where a preda­tor is look­ing. If a green bee-eater sees that a preda­tor is able to see their nest, they will not enter their own nest. This ev­i­dence sug­gests that green bee-eaters have the­ory of mind, which means that they can per­ceive that or­gan­isms' men­tal states can be dif­fer­ent from their own. Green bee-eaters use this and their vi­sion to de­ter­mine if a preda­tor could be a threat to their nest or not.

The green bee-eater gives short alarm calls that are sharp and sound like "tic" or "ti-ti-ti" to com­mu­ni­cate with other mem­bers of their species. They also have a sec­ond call, which is a soft trill that sounds like "tr­ree-tr­ree-tr­ree-tr­ree-tr­ree." Green bee-eaters only vo­cal­iza­tions are these two calls, which they use to alert other mem­bers of their species to their lo­ca­tion and alert them if there is a preda­tor. Green bee-eaters do not have a song that they use to at­tract mates. In ad­di­tion, there has been no re­search that sug­gests that green bee-eaters per­form dis­plays. To at­tract mates and as­sist pair bond­ing, green bee-eaters will par­tic­i­pate in courtship feed­ing. (Ali and Asokan, 2015; Asokan, 1995; Burt, 2002; Rob­son, 2000; Smitha, et al., 1999; Was­nik, et al., 2014; Watve, et al., 2002)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• acoustic

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

The green bee-eater is an in­sec­ti­vore. They will perch on branches or wires and scan the en­vi­ron­ment for in­sects. They eat mainly fly­ing in­sects such as bees (Hy­menoptera), grasshop­pers (Or­thoptera), bee­tles (Coleoptera), but­ter­flies (Lep­i­doptera), drag­on­flies (Odonata), flies (Diptera) and other in­sects (Hemiptera). Of these in­sects, bees and bee­tles have been found to be the major part of the green bee-eater’s diet. The green bee-eater is adapted to catch­ing in­sects while they are fly­ing. When an in­sect is fly­ing, the green bee-eater will chase after it by fly­ing close to the ground and change di­rec­tion quickly in order to cap­ture the in­sect. As their name in­di­cates, they are very ef­fi­cient at catch­ing and eat­ing wild bees. After catch­ing a bee, the green bee-eater will fly back to a perch, and then hit and rub the bee against the perch sev­eral time in order to get rid of the poi­so­nous stinger. The green bee-eater then swal­lows its prey whole. (Ali and Asokan, 2015; Asokan, et al., 2009; Mishra, 2019)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • insectivore

• Animal Foods
• insects

Pre­da­tion

Green bee-eaters have a unique way to avoid preda­tors when they are breed­ing, be­cause their main preda­tors prey on nests and nestlings. Stud­ies have sug­gested that green bee-eaters have the­ory of mind, which means that they can per­ceive that other or­gan­isms' men­tal states are dif­fer­ent from their own. When a preda­tor's gaze is look­ing to­wards the green bee-eater's nest, the bird will not enter the tun­nel lead­ing to the nest. In­stead, it will wait until the preda­tor has looked away from the tun­nel to enter the nest. The green bee-eater does this to pre­vent preda­tors from find­ing their eggs. In ad­di­tion, green bee-eaters will dive at preda­tors when they are nest­ing to try to warn them away. Some preda­tors that have been doc­u­mented as prey­ing on green bee-eater nests in­clude dogs (Canis lupus fa­mil­iaris) and the but­ter­fly lizard (Leiolepis bel­liana). Snakes and other rep­tiles have been recorded to prey on other bee-eater species’ nests. Be­cause of their bright col­oration, birds of prey and rap­tors are preda­tors of the adult bee-eaters. (Burt, 2002; Smitha, et al., 1999; Was­nik, et al., 2014; Watve, et al., 2002; Yuan, et al., 2006)

• Known Predators

  • dogs (Canis lupus familiaris)
  • butterfly lizard (Leiolepis belliana)

Ecosys­tem Roles

The green bee-eater is a preda­tor of many in­sect species. They can help con­trol in­sect pop­u­la­tions through­out their range. On the other hand, some an­i­mals, such as lizards, may prey on the eggs and nestlings of the green bee-eater.

There has not been much other re­search on the ecosys­tem roles of the green bee-eater. Re­search has been done on par­a­sites of the Eu­ro­pean bee-eater (Merops api­aster) and blue-cheeked bee-eater (Merops su­per­cil­io­sus per­si­cus), both that are found in Iraq, which is part of the green bee-eater's range as well. It was found that Haemo­pro­teus lairdi, H. man­welli, H. meropis, and H. hu­daiden­sis were blood par­a­sites that use the Eu­ro­pean bee-eater and the blue-cheeked bee-eater as a host. These par­a­sites may also use the green bee-eater as a host, but there needs to be more re­search done on the blood par­a­sites of the green bee-eater to con­firm this. (Mishra, 2019; Mo­ham­mad and Al­Neaimi, 2009)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Be­cause the green bee-eater is an in­sec­ti­vore, they are a ben­e­fit to crop agri­cul­ture. Birds, such as the green bee-eater, can be ef­fec­tive in­sect bio-con­trols for farm­ers be­cause they are cost-ef­fec­tive, and can gather in large groups to catch and con­trol in­sect pest pop­u­la­tions. Specif­i­cally, green bee-eaters are known to be bio-con­trols against a bug called the white grub (Holotricha sp.), which can in­fect and de­stroy the roots of human crops. Many farm­ers have been known to en­cour­age in­sec­tiv­o­rous birds like the green bee-eater to come to their agri­cul­ture fields by doing things such as set­ting up perches that the birds can use.

Be­sides help­ing human agri­cul­ture, the green bee-eater is has bril­liant plumage and is a beau­ti­ful bird and is ex­cit­ing for any per­son to see. Bird watch­ing is an im­por­tant part of eco­tourism in places like India, and green bee-eaters can be found in nat­ural areas that are im­por­tant for eco­tourism. In ad­di­tion, green bee-eaters are an in­ter­est­ing species to per­form stud­ies on, be­cause of dif­fer­ent traits they have such as the­ory of mind, colo­nial and co­op­er­a­tive breed­ing, and adap­ta­tions to catch bees and in­sects. How­ever, there has not been much ex­ten­sive re­search done on the green bee-eater, so more stud­ies need to be done on the them to dis­cover more about them. (Asokan, et al., 2009; Mishra, 2019; Mo­hanta and Be­hera, 2014; Was­nik, et al., 2014)

• Positive Impacts
• ecotourism
• research and education
• controls pest population

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Green bee-eaters have some neg­a­tive ef­fects on hu­mans — bee-keep­ers in par­tic­u­lar. Be­cause the green bee-eater preys on bees, they can neg­a­tively af­fect bee pop­u­la­tions that are main­tained by bee-keep­ers. Stud­ies have found that the green bee-eater preys on hon­ey­bees, and that they have higher prey cap­ture ef­fi­ciency close to an api­ary, the place where bee-keep­ers keep bee­hives. Bee-eaters' pre­da­tion on bees can cre­ate sig­nif­i­cant losses to a bee-keeper's hon­ey­bee pop­u­la­tion. In ad­di­tion, the green bee-eater was found to kill a sig­nif­i­cant num­ber of vir­gin queen bees, re­duc­ing the amount of mat­ings that the queen bees can have, which neg­a­tively af­fects a hive’s pop­u­la­tion. The way that the green bee-eater af­fects hon­ey­bee pop­u­la­tions could be an im­por­tant issue for its con­ser­va­tion. (Mo­hamed Ali and Abdou Taha, 2012; Was­nik, et al., 2014)

• Negative Impacts
• crop pest

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

The green bee-eater is con­sid­ered "Least Con­cern" by the IUCN Red List. It is known to be a com­mon bird through­out it range. How­ever, in the fu­ture, there could be some threats that af­fect its pop­u­la­tion. Bee num­bers are de­clin­ing around the world, and be­cause they are one of the prin­ci­pal foods of the green bee-eater, this could neg­a­tively af­fect their pop­u­la­tion. In ad­di­tion, be­cause bee­keep­ers re­gard the green bee-eater as a pest, there could be some con­tro­versy of their con­ser­va­tion in the fu­ture. ("The IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species", 2020; Was­nik, et al., 2014)

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern

• US Migratory Bird Act

  No special status

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Megan Quinn (au­thor), North­ern Michi­gan Uni­ver­sity, Alec Lind­say (ed­i­tor), North­ern Michi­gan Uni­ver­sity, Tanya Dewey (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

2020. "The IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species" (On-line). Ac­cessed April 14, 2020 at https://​www.​iucnredlist.​org.

Ali, A., S. Asokan. 2015. Di­ur­nal-ac­tiv­ity Pat­terns of the Small Bee-eater (Merops ori­en­talis) in South­ern India. Trop­i­cal Life Sci­ences Re­search, 26: 9-20.

Asokan, S. 1995. Ecol­ogy of the small green bee-eater (Merops ori­en­talis) latham 1801 with spe­cial ref­er­ence to its pop­u­la­tion feed­ing and breed­ing in May­i­laduthu­rai Tamil Nadu South India. Tiruchi­rap­palli: Bharathi­dasan Uni­ver­sity.

Asokan, S., A. Ali, R. Manikan­nan. 2010. Breed­ing bi­ol­ogy of the Small Bee-eater Merops ori­en­talis (Latham, 1801) in Na­ga­p­at­ti­nam Dis­trict, Tamil Nadu, India. Jour­nal of Threat­ened Taxa, 2: 797-804.

Asokan, S., A. Ali, R. Manikan­nan. 2009. Diet of three in­sec­tiv­o­rous birds in Na­ga­p­at­ti­nam Dis­trict, Tamil Nadu, India - a pre­lim­i­nary study. Jour­nal of Threat­ened Taxa, 6: 327-330.

Burt, D. 2002. So­cial and breed­ing bi­ol­ogy of bee-eaters in Thai­land. The Wil­son Bul­letin, 114: 275-279.

Clements, J. 1981. Birds of the World: A Check­list. New York: Facts on File, Inc..

Heg­ner, R., S. Emlen. 1987. Ter­ri­to­r­ial Or­ga­ni­za­tion of the White Fronted Bee‐eater in Kenya. Ethol­ogy, 76: 189-222.

Mishra, S. 2019. The Ecol­ogy of Merops Ori­en­talis. In­ter­na­tional Jour­nal of Sci­en­tific Re­search in Bi­o­log­i­cal Sci­ences, 6: 12-14.

Mo­hamed Ali, M., E. Abdou Taha. 2012. Bee-Eat­ing Birds (Coraci­iformes: Merop­i­dae) Re­duce Vir­gin Honey Bee Queen Sur­vival dur­ing Mat­ing Flights and For­ag­ing Ac­tiv­ity of Honey Bees (Apis mel­lif­era L.). In­ter­na­tional Jour­nal of Sci­en­tific & En­gi­neer­ing Re­search, 3: 1-5.

Mo­ham­mad, M., T. Al­Neaimi. 2009. Blood par­a­sites of two bee-eaters in Iraq. Bul­letin of the Iraq Nat­ural His­tory Mu­seum, 9: 71-77.

Mo­hanta, R., S. Be­hera. 2014. An An­no­tated Pre­lim­i­nary Check­list of Birds Di­ver­sity in Coastal Eco­tourism Area of Gan­jam, South­ern Odisha, India. Open Jour­nal of Ocean and Coastal Sci­ences, 1: 1-7.

Rob­son, C. 2000. A Guide to the Birds of South­east Asia. United King­dom: New Hol­land Pub­lish­ers (UK) Ltd.

Smitha, B., J. Thakar, M. Watve. 1999. Do bee eaters have the­ory of mind?. Cur­rent Sci­ence, 76: 574-577.

Was­nik, S., P. Telkhade, R. Ti­jare, P. Charde. 2014. Ecol­ogy of the Lit­tle Green Bee-eater (Merops ori­en­talis) from Nag­pur Area (India). In­ter­na­tional Jour­nal of Re­searches in Bio­sciences and Agri­cul­ture Tech­nol­ogy, 2: 808-815.

Watve, M., J. Thakar, A. Kale, S. Pun­tam­bekar, I. Shaikh, K. Vaze, M. Jog, S. Paran­jape. 2002. Bee-eaters ( Merops ori­en­talis ) re­spond to what a preda­tor can see. An­i­mal Cog­ni­tion, 5: 253-259.

Yuan, H., D. Burt, L. Wang, W. Chang, M. Wang. 2006. Colony site choice of blue-tailed bee-eaters: in­flu­ences of soil, veg­e­ta­tion, and water qual­ity. Jour­nal of Nat­ural His­tory, 40: 485-493.