Howdy, friends.  I know it has gotten exceedingly real out there, I hope learning about the wonders of nature can help everyone relax, if only a little.  Our bird this week is the rainbow bee-eater, which lives in most of Australia excluding the island of Tasmania and in winter months can also be found in New Guinea and southern Indonesia.  These birds are found near water in just about every climate the Australian continent offers aside from deserts, and can also be found in parks and gardens. They do not appear to be sexually dimorphic.

These birds eat a variety of flying insects, but true to their name prefer bees and wasps.  They catch their prey on the wing and bring it back to their perch to eat, where they will knock it against the tree to stun it.  Although they are immune to the stings of their prey, they will rub insects against tree bark to remove the stinger.  They will close their eyes while doing so, since removing the stinger ruptures the prey’s teeny tiny store of venom.  Each bee-eater can eat several hundred bees per day, but they are apparently tolerated by apiarists because they also eat insects harmful to the apiary, like locusts and hornets.  

Like other bee-eaters, the rainbow bee eater nests on the ground.  Both members of a breeding pair, which appear to mate for life, will choose a site, and the female will dig while the male brings her food.  The female bee eater will balance on her wings and feet and push dirt backward with her bill.  She can dig about seven to eight centimeters a day while building a burrow that will end up about 90cm (36 in) long.   The nest tunnel is so narrow that the birds coming and going act like a piston, pushing out stale air as they leave and bringing in fresh air when they return.  Rainbow bee-eaters are very social and will share their nest with other couples and even other species of birds.  Eggs hatch after about three weeks and the young will fledge about a month later.  In the meantime, they are cared for by both their parents and other members of the flock, which appears to be a pretty common arrangement based on all we have learned with these headers.  

Rainbow bee-eaters are rated as “of least concern” by the IUCN.  Their range is very large and their population appears to be stable.  Be kind to yourselves and others, friends.  

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