Nyctyornis athertoni

IUCN

Alias：Blue-bearded night bee-eater，Nyctyornis athertoni，Blue-bearded Bee-eater

Basic Information

Scientific classification

name：Nyctyornis athertoni
Aliases：Blue-bearded night bee-eater，Nyctyornis athertoni，Blue-bearded Bee-eater
Outline：Climbing birds
Family：order family genus

Vital signs

length：About 35 cm
Weight：70-93g
lifetime：No verification information

Feature

When perched, it constantly raises its tail like an angler

Details

Blue-bearded Bee-eater is a green forest-dwelling bee-eater with two subspecies.

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Blue-bearded Bee-eaters live in pairs and seem to be inactive for most of the day. They live high up in the trees, in the shade of leaves, or in the sun near the canopy. They stand next to the inflorescences and will peck at them when nectar is plentiful. When they are perched, they keep lifting their tails like an angler. The species is resident, but some local populations in Nepal and Myanmar migrate seasonally.

The blue-bearded bee-eater sometimes lives on the treetops, and when it sees an insect flying by, it will take off into the air to catch it. Regardless of whether it succeeds or not, it will immediately glide back to its original position in an arc shape; sometimes it hovers above the canopy or flies through the bushes to chase insects, often flying and calling, with a hoarse voice like "ko-r-r: ko-r-r", and when it calls, the long feathers on the throat and chest are significantly loosened.

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When the blue-bearded bee-eater is active on trees, it will hold on to the trunk or branches tightly, moving slowly and clumsily, checking the leaves and catching insects. It will also catch some bees that fly to its side. These insects are attracted to the blue-bearded bee-eater because they treat their beards as a flower. The species will bring large insects caught in flight back to its habitat. Not all insects are eaten whole, only the abdomen of large beetles is eaten.

Blue-bearded bee-eaters are insectivorous. They feed on flying insects, mostly bees, mainly 2-3 species of bees and some wasps, the largest of which can sometimes be up to 40 mm long. Among them are cicadas and coleoptera insects, and they also eat weevils, beetles, dragonflies, termites, etc. Even passerine birds and pike have been found in their stomachs.

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The breeding season of the blue-bearded bee-eater varies from place to place. The breeding season in Assam, eastern India, is from February to May and August, and in Nepal it is from April to October. In Myanmar it is from March to October, and in Thailand it is from April to May.

The nest is dug by both parents on a slope near a jungle trail or road, on the wall of a gully or landslide, often on the bank of a forest ravine or on the steep wall beside a sloping mountain road. This work begins more than a month before egg laying begins. The nest is isolated, although there are often holes in the walls of the excavated nest, which may be caves or nests in previous years. The tunnel entrance is about 10 cm in diameter and the depth is between 1.3-3 meters. At the end, it expands into an egg chamber, 20 cm wide and 13 cm high. There is no nest mat, and the soil is initially bare, but it is quickly covered by a thick layer of organic debris, which the birds discarded long before laying eggs. It is also often scattered on the ground outside the hole.

Females lay six eggs per clutch, which are pure white and nearly spherical in shape. Males and females take turns in building the nest, incubating the eggs, and raising the chicks. The chicks are altricial.

The global population size of the blue-bearded bee-eater has not been quantified, but the species is reported to be quite common in its range (del Hoyo et al., 2001). The population of the blue-bearded bee-eater is considered stable with no evidence of decline or major threats.

Listed in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in 2016 ver3.1 - Least Concern (LC).

Listed in China's "National Key Protected Wildlife List" (February 5, 2021) Level 2.

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Location

Distributed in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand and Vietnam.
Found in mountainous or hilly areas, often in sparse vegetation near or on ridges. From sea level to 1600 meters, it is distributed in dense forests and broad-leaved forests, where it prefers foothills with vegetation with steep slopes, gullies and streams. It is a bird that lives in dense forests. But in dense forests, it generally stays in the middle layer or canopy of forest trees. It is also active on grasslands or hillsides, gullies, rivers, villages, etc. near streams, trails, fallen trees and rock outcrops that appear from time to time.

Form

The blue-bearded bee-eater is relatively large, with a body length of 35 cm, a wing length of more than 13 cm, and a weight of 70-93 grams. The feathers in the center of the chest are particularly long and colorful, and the tail is slightly convex and almost the same length as the wings. Summer plumage: The upper body is bright light blue from the forehead to the front of the head, and the rest of the body and the sides of the head and neck, the wings, and the tail surface are grass green with blue. The outer flight feathers have dark brown feather tips and yellow inner edges, and the inner feathers of the side tail feathers have ochre yellow bases and dark brown tips. The lower body from the chin to the sides of the chest is the same color as the back; the center of the throat is light blue, and the center of the front neck to the upper chest (long feathers) turns dark blue; from the lower chest to the lower chest, it is ochre yellow, and except for the lower tail coverts, each feathe