Merops orientalis Latham, 1801

A small bee-eater, richly coloured with green and tinged with blue. It has elongated central tail feathers. Abundantly seen in open countryside, often perched on wires, from which it sallies to catch insects in flight.

This is a dainty, grass-green bird - the smallest of the bee-eaters. It has a golden-brown crown, a black eye-stripe above bluish throat and cheeks, which are separated from the breast by a thin black line. The dark bill is thin, sharp and slightly curved. It has two prominent elongated feathers that extend from the green tail. It is widespread and found in open countryside, often close to habitation and cultivation, and in wooded areas in the Park and lower slopes of the Hill, and around wetlands including Samudram and Keezhnathur. It is usually seen in pairs or small groups on telegraph wires and fence posts. It feeds on bees and other insects which it catches in mid-air before gliding gracefrilly back to its perch on outstretched, motionless wings. It kills the insects by rubbing their bodies on the branches that form their perch. Its call is a jingling tit, tit or a trilling tree-tree-tree constantly uttered at rest and on the wing. It roosts communally in leafy trees.

The Green bee-eater has a reddish-gold crown and a blue throat with a black border.

Nests are made in holes in mud banks, often near a stream or river bed.

The principal breeding months are from February to May. The birds usually nest in colonies, excavating horizontal tunnels about 1.5 in diameter, and from a foot to six feet long, in the sides of earth banks, mounds, dry nullahs, burrow pits and the like. In sandy soil the tunnels are often driven obliquely into more or less Hat ground. They expand at their extremity into an unlined nest-chamber about 5 inches across. The eggs 4 to 7 are pure white, roundish ovals. Both sexes share in excavating the nest-tunnels and feeding the young.

About that of the Sparrow.

A slender bright green bird, tinged with reddish-brown on head and neck, with the central pair of tail feathers prolonged into blunt pins. Slender, long, slightly curved bill. Conspicuous black ' necklace'. Sexes alike.

The call is a shrill ` tree-tree-tree...´ and flocks often gather on fences and overhead wires. Bees and winged termites are their favourite food, and their aerial acrobatics while capturing these insects are a delight to watch.

The Green Bee-eater affects open country in the neighbourhood of cultivation. It is commonly found in forest clearings and about villages and towns where it is partial to fallow land, lawns and 'maidans'. It has a marked liking for the zone immediately above the sandy beach along the sea coast. Small loose parties mav usually be met with launching aerial sallies after winged insects from a perch on some telegraph wire, fence or dry branch of a small tree. The quarrv is snapped up in mid-air as the bird swoops at it gracefully and circles back on out stretched motionless wings to its perch, where it is battered and swallowed. The notes constantly uttered are a pleasant 'tit, tit' or trilly 'tree-tree-tree' like the jingling of tiny hawk-bells. Large numbers assemble to roost every evening in selected bushy trees. Great noise and bustle prevails before the birds finally settle in for the night. Everv now and again the entire concourse suddenly flies out in a confused rabble, circling round the tree to the accompaniment of much exided trilling, and gradually re-settles. They are late risers and may frequently be seen huddled together in little groups along the branches, heads tucked away under their wings and fast asleep, till after the sun is well up. Their food consists of dragonllies, dipterous and hymenopterous insects, and the birds are destructive to honey bees.

Inhabits open country-the neighbourhood of cultivation, forest clearings, fallow land, gardens, golf links etc. Also partial to the zone above sandy beach along the seacoast.

Seen in pairs or parties, on telegraph wires, etc, in open country.

IUCN Redlist Status: Least Concern

Red List Category & Criteria: Least Concern ver 3.1