With an Ant-lion (Palpares libelluloides).

With a Locust

With an Ant-lion (Palpares libelluloides)

3 to 4 times per day, as raptors do, Bee-eaters regurgitate pellets. Those are the remains of the hardest and undigestible part of their preys. Under the nests they cover the ground as a dark brown carpet (the brown items around the Hoopoe on the photo). Not disgusting because it doesn’t smell at all. It is very crumbly when you get it in your hand and very interesting and tricky to try to identify the content. It appears to be a good means to analyse their diet . Nevertheless it is not that easy, if your not an entomologist, to decide for a species from the remain of a tiny wing fragment. The regurgitation is one of the scenes I would like to add to this gallery, if ever I get it…

Bee-eaters are great flyers capable of 500 km in a row. Those breeding in south of France will cross Mediterranean sea and join western Africa to spend the bad season.

In fact, as many migratory birds, the European Bee-eater will spend most of the year in Africa (8 months out of 12) staying in France only from May to August. Meanwhile it leaves just enough time to file thousands of photos taken during their stay.