Olive bee-eater

The olive bee-eater or Madagascar bee-eater (Merops superciliosus) is a bee-eater species in the genus Merops. It is native to the southern half of Africa where it is present in Angola; Botswana; Burundi; Comoros; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Djibouti; Eritrea; Ethiopia; Kenya; Madagascar; Malawi; Mayotte; Mozambique; Namibia; Rwanda; Somalia; South Sudan; Sudan; Tanzania; Uganda; Zambia; Zimbabwe. It is a common species with a wide range so the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated their conservation status as "least concern".<ref name="iucn status 12 November 2021" />

Taxonomy

In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the olive bee-eater in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected on the island of Madagascar. He used the French name Le guespier de Madagascar and the Latin Apiaster Madagascariensis.<ref name=brisson>Template:Cite book The two stars (**) at the start of the section indicates that Brisson based his description on the examination of a specimen.</ref> Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.<ref name=allen>Template:Cite journal</ref> When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson.<ref name=allen/> One of these was the olive bee-eater. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the current binomial name Merops superciliosus and cited Brisson's work.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The specific name superciliosus is Latin for "supercilious", "haughty" or "eye-browed".<ref name=hbwkey>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Two subspecies are recognised:<ref name=ioc>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• M. s. superciliosus Linnaeus, 1766 – east Africa, Madagascar and the Comoro Islands
• M. s. alternans Clancey, 1971 – west Angola and northwest Namibia

Description

The olive bee-eater grows to a length of Template:Convert with its tail streamers adding up to Template:Convert. The sexes are similar, and adults have bronzy-green plumage with an olive cap and white forehead, eyebrows, chin and cheeks. The rump and tail are blue, apart from the streamers, which are black.<ref name=Fry>Template:Cite book</ref>

Distribution

The olive bee-eater is found in the grassland and coastal mountain forests of East Africa and Madagascar, and an isolated population can be found in coastal Angola.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> There are two subspecies; M. s. superciliosus occurs in eastern Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya, and southwards through East Africa to southern Mozambique and the Zambezi Valley, as well as the Comoro Islands and Madagascar; M. s. alternans occurs in western Angola and northwestern Namibia.<ref name=HBWA>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Ecology

They are partially migratory, and usually breed only in the southern portion of their range, moving north for the dry season in southern Africa. It lays four eggs in a burrow nest at the beginning of the southern African wet season, and the chicks usually hatch at the beginning of December.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Unlike most bee-eaters, the species does not practice cooperative breeding and post-fledging dependence is only around 19 days, which is typical of temperate zone passerines and about half that of most Meropidae species.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Gallery

• A bee caught in the Anjajavy Forest
  A bee caught in the Anjajavy Forest
• Pair in the Anjajavy Forest
  Pair in the Anjajavy Forest
• In flight over a swimming pool at Anjajavy
  In flight over a swimming pool at Anjajavy

External links

• Olive bee-eater - Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds.