Painting The Sky

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Painting the Sky

A brilliant blur as it plucks a butterfly from the air, the European bee-eater, Merops apiaster, leads a colorful life on three continents.

Image: Jözsef L. Szentpéteri/National Geographic [larger view].

My contact, an editor at National Geographic, just sent me a link to a story and photoessay that details the courtship and breeding of European Bee-eaters, Merops apiaster. The story is fascinating and well-worth reading and the photographs, as always for National Geographic, brings tears of wonder to one's eyes.

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tags: ornithology, birds, avian,
tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews,
tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews,

My immediate reaction to this image was "OH!." Remarkable work.

On rare occaisions they have at least attempted to nest here in the UK. I have never seen one over here, but they are very prominent birds in southern Europe - they like to perch on telephone wires when not wheling overhead in fair sized flocks

During a visit to the Forest at Fontainebleau in 2005, Didier, an accomodating French birder, was delighted to show me a colony of European Bee-eaters there. I have an indelible memory of these lovely birds. h

By Harlow Bielefeldt (not verified) on 16 Sep 2008 #permalink