Hardy Tropicals UK

Clive60 wrote:Strange coincidence, a pair of European Bee Eaters bred in Northumberland some years ago raising (I think) three young.

Co. Durham, at Bishop Middleham quarry, in 2002; 3 young hatched but only 2 fledged.

Clive60 wrote:The bird is a beauty and hope it stays for a while although tonights temperatures might change it's mind.

Still there today, on the bird news.

I had a look at the pics on Bird Guides, I've not seen one yet, maybe on our holiday next year.

It's been there a week, now!

And there is a second Conifers..

Bee-eaters hit and rub bees and wasps against a hard surface to remove their stings before they eat them

Clever!!


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-20256986

Their eyes are quite fascinating.. a little different from what i've seen in most birds.

Little beauties.....

No Kata, this is the 'Little' beauty.

Clive60 wrote:No Kata, this is the 'Little' beauty.

Little Bee-eater . . . somewhere in Kenya?

We get rainbow bee eaters here as year round residents and they are a regular garden visitor. They excavate nests in the sand dunes at the nearby beach and in a good season you can watch hundreds of birds coming and going with their beaks stuffed full of insect. I tthink they are very charming little birds.

I love exotic birds!!

The only downfall living in the UK is we don't get such beautiful wildlife as in the hot countries. Sure we have the Robin, Wrens etc but the color pallet of nature abroad is something else.

Thanks Sean and Clive those are lovely birds.



Its a bird thread so...I can't leave out my Blue Footed Boobies...

I love to see a nice pair of Boobies!.
The Little Bee Eater was in Kenya. I find bird distribution fascinating ie why does the European Bee Eater have to migrate to Europe and the Little Bee Eater stays resident in Africa.

Sean, I've seen video on youtube of the Rainbow Bee Eaters lifting their feathers on their back to warm up in the sun, I don't know of any other birds doing that.

Clive60 wrote: I've seen video on youtube of the Rainbow Bee Eaters lifting their feathers on their back to warm up in the sun, I don't know of any other birds doing that.

All birds do that when they sun themselves they do it to let sunlight reach the preen gland on the back, to help manufacture vitamin D. Here's a Blackbird showing its back feathers partly lifted: Found a good article about it: http://birding.about.com/od/birdbehavio ... unning.htm

Interesting article, I've seen birds sunning themselves but not seen the feathers lifted.

I get the Express newpaper everyday and saw this,

ONE MILLION BRITISH BIRDS VANISHING A YEAR.....

BRITAIN has lost nearly a million breeding wild birds a year – a total of 44 million – since 1966, a shocking report revealed yesterday.
The crisis in the countryside is so great that an average of 50 house sparrows have been lost every hour and about 835 starlings each day.

Between the mid-Seventies and mid-Eighties 27 million breeding pairs were lost.

Since then green farming grants have helped several species, including stone curlew, recover.

But the EU plans to...

DAILY EXPRESS:
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/359 ... ing-a-year