Carmine Bee-eater

Also known as the Northern Carmine Bee-eater, this species is one of the most striking birds in Africa, cloaked almost entirely in rich pinkish-carmine plumage.

Appearance

• Vivid carmine-pink body plumage
• Turquoise-blue crown, nape, and throat, contrasting with the pink body and black eye mask
• Greenish-blue rump and undertail coverts
• Elongated, wire-like central tail feathers that extend well past the rest of the tail
• Long, slightly downcurved black bill

Sexes are alike; juveniles are duller and lack the tail streamers.

Key field marks

• Overall carmine-pink body with a contrasting turquoise-blue crown and throat
• Long central tail streamers
• Black mask through the eye

Similar species

• Southern Carmine Bee-eater is very similar but has a carmine (not blue) throat, with the turquoise-blue confined mainly to the crown and vent/undertail area — the throat color is the most reliable distinction between the two.
• White-fronted Bee-eater is mostly green, not pink, with a white forehead.
• Ranges rarely overlap for long, which also helps separate the two carmine species: this species occupies the Sahel and northeastern Africa, while Southern Carmine breeds farther south.

Range

Breeds across a broad belt of northern tropical Africa and the Sahel, from Senegal and Gambia east to Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia.

Habitat

Open savanna, grassland, and farmland, especially near rivers with sandy banks used for nesting; also follows grass fires and large grazing animals to catch disturbed insects.

Movements

An intra-African migrant, moving seasonally in relation to rainfall and breeding, with some populations shifting south during the northern dry season.

Behavior

Highly social and conspicuous, often seen perched in loose flocks on wires, bushes, or the backs of large mammals and even bustards, from which it launches to catch insects flushed by the host's movement.

Voice

A rolling, guttural "terrk-terrk" or chattering call, frequently given in flight and around colonies.

Feeding

Catches bees, wasps, dragonflies, grasshoppers, and other flying insects in agile aerial sallies, often hawking over grass fires or moving herds.

Nesting

Nests colonially, excavating tunnels in vertical sandy riverbanks or flat sandy ground; colonies can number in the hundreds to thousands of burrows.