Red-bearded Bee-eater
Time to hit the Old Pumhouse road fellow birders if you have not sighted
this bee eater resident. This my first sighting... lifer for me up close and
personal. There were two couples and I think they do give out growling call and
its really loud and weird. Who says they are quiet guys.It was about 10.30am walking back to the Gate about 100m after the square water tank stumble upon them and with the glorious sunshine managed to get some good shots at about 25 ft out. It stayed for more than 10-15mins. Met The Yap family on their morning walk and talked about it. No fellow birders thought.
Many bee-eaters are social creatures of open country of dense Asian jungles such as the wonderful Red-bearded Bee-eater. Nearly all the family 26 nos are assigned to the genus Merops but the Red-bearded Bee-eater of Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra & Borneo is in the genus Nyctornis (as is the more northern Blue-bearded Bee-eater N. athertoni in SE Asia; the purple-headed Celebes Bee-eater Meropogon forsteni is the other non-Merops oddity). These are quiet forest birds found in pairs. Most bee-eaters have spiky tail extensions but Nyctornis does not instead a fan tail for emergency stop in mid air when hunting for flying insects.
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