Rainbow Bee-eaterScientific name: Merops ornatus
Meaning of name: Merops is Greek for bee-eater. Ornatus is Latin for ornate.
Aboriginal name: Birinbirin (beer’in’beer’in).
Distribution: Widespread on mainland Australia.
Description: This bird is about 19cm long with a wingspan up to 34cm. The central tail-streamers add another 2-5cm to the length of male birds and 1-2cm to females.
Notes: The tail-streamers can become damaged while the birds are nesting. The nest is an underground chamber at the end of a tunnel that can be 1m long.
The furthest distance recorded by the Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme for this species of bird to travel is 18km. The oldest bird recorded was still alive when its band was read in July 2005, 4 years 7.1 months after being banded (information as at 20 June 2012).
References: Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Various contributors.
What Bird is That? Neville W Cayley. 1978
Aboriginal names of bird species in south-west Western Australia, with suggestions for their adoption into common usage. Ian Abbott. 2009. Conservation Science Western Australia Journal. Volume 7 No 2 http://www.dpaw.wa.gov.au/about-us/science-and-research/76-publications-and-resources/103-conservation-science-wa-journal
Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/science/abbbs/abbbs-search.html
This picture demonstrates that bee-eaters eat insects other than bees. This one is eating a dragonfly.
The long tail-streamers on this bird indicate that it is a male.
The black throat-band indicates the bird on the left is adult. The short tail-streamers suggest that it is female. The lack of tail-streamers and lack of black on the throat on the two other birds suggests that they are immature.
The bird on the left is male, the bird on the right is female.
