1. Description
1.1. bee-eaters range in length from 15 to 35 cm (6 to 14 inches).
1.1.1. a researcher once found a hundred bees in the stomach of a bee-eater near a hive.
1.1.2. including the two elongated central tail feathers
1.1.3. Juvenile resembles a non-breeding adult, but with less variation in the feather colours
1.2. Sexes are alike.
1.2.1. Female tends to have greener rather than gold feathers on shoulders
1.3. spectacular life
1.3.1. They can live for 5 to 6 years
2. Behaviour and ecology
2.1. Breeding
2.1.1. Form families that breed in the spring and summer
2.1.2. Usually at the beginning of May. They make a relatively long tunnel
2.1.2.1. They lay five to eight spherical white eggs around the beginning of June
2.1.2.2. Both male and female care for the eggs, which they brood for about three weeks. They also feed and roost communally.
2.2. Feeding
2.2.1. eat insects, especially bees, wasps, hornets and flying insect.
2.2.2. It can eat around 250 bees a day
2.3. migration
2.3.1. Massive flocks from Spain, France and northern Italy cross the Sahara desert to their wintering grounds in West Africa
2.3.2. Bee-eaters from Hungary and other parts of Central and Eastern Europe cross the Mediterranean Sea and Arabian Desert to winter in southern Africa
3. THE THREAT
3.1. The predator
3.1.1. The predators are skunks, bears and hive beetles
3.1.1.1. 'At least 30 percent of the birds will be killed by predators before they make it back to Europe the following spring.'
3.1.2. Attack the hive every night when they found this and eat large quantities of bees
3.2. The difficulties of migration
3.3. pesticides
3.3.1. find it harder to find food,
3.4. rivers are turned into concrete-walled canals.
3.4.1. Breeding sites are also disappearing
4. HABITAT( DWELLING)
4.1. Found throughtout tropical and subtropical Eurasia, Africa, and Australasia
4.2. Live in a nest by digging tunnels in riverbannks
4.2.1. They work for up to 20 days
4.2.2. By the end of the job, they 've moved 15 to 26 pounds of soil- more than 80 times their weight