I have a few more delights to show you from my February trip to Zambia.
The Carmine Bee-eaters, for which the Luangwa Valley is famous, had not yet arrived for the season, but there are 27 different species of bee-eater, 20 of which live in Africa, and several others were there already. They more than made up for it.
This is a Little Bee-eater, Merops pusillus:
It is the smallest African bee-eater, under 20g in weight. This was perched only about a meter off the ground, their preferred hunting perch. It is definitely not threatened: their population is estimated at up to 80 million! When they catch a bee, they bash it on the ground to remove the sting before eating it.
And this is a White-fronted Bee-eater, Merops bullockoides, (actually two of them), high in a tree by the river:
They are larger than the Little Bee-eater, about 35gm, and more social. They nest in riverbank colonies composed of several clans. Each clan has a single breeding pair, and several other adults (mainly last year’s brood) who are ‘helpers’ in incubating and feeding the young. This cooperative breeding behavior is also found in wild dogs and in wolves. Seems like an excellent model for family life, and one that human society now all too rarely follows.
Eyes on the Wild 