White-fronted Bee-eater
White-fronted Bee-eater (Merops bullockoides), Chobe National Park, Botswana, March 2023.
The species is widely distributed in sub-equatorial Africa. Hunts mainly from lower levels of trees and tall shrubs in bushy grassland. Most pairs staying together for life, taking on helpers in some years or themselves helping to rear close relatives’ young in others. 60% of breeding pairs have 1–5 helpers, these being yearlings or experienced past breeders, which help with excavation, incubation, brood-feeding, and defence of nest and feeding territory; 3–4 pairs with helpers comprise a clan, members of which are related and freely visit each other’s burrows, but repel attempts by non-members to enter burrows. During its lifetime, individual can change roles between breeding and helping several times. Most helpers are male and males spend better part of day at colony, protecting female from enforced copulation by other males. Species is common and widespread, not globally threatened; (Birds of the world).
White-fronted Bee-eater
White-fronted Bee-eater (Merops bullockoides), Chobe National Park, Botswana, March 2023.
The species is widely distributed in sub-equatorial Africa. Hunts mainly from lower levels of trees and tall shrubs in bushy grassland. Most pairs staying together for life, taking on helpers in some years or themselves helping to rear close relatives’ young in others. 60% of breeding pairs have 1–5 helpers, these being yearlings or experienced past breeders, which help with excavation, incubation, brood-feeding, and defence of nest and feeding territory; 3–4 pairs with helpers comprise a clan, members of which are related and freely visit each other’s burrows, but repel attempts by non-members to enter burrows. During its lifetime, individual can change roles between breeding and helping several times. Most helpers are male and males spend better part of day at colony, protecting female from enforced copulation by other males. Species is common and widespread, not globally threatened; (Birds of the world).