Species profile
About the southern carmine bee-eater
The southern carmine bee-eater is among the most spectacular birds in Africa: deep carmine-red with a turquoise crown and rump, long tail streamers and a black eye mask. In the breeding season, colonies of hundreds or thousands excavate nest tunnels into vertical sandbanks along the Rufiji, and the airspace above the river turns red.
They are also famous for riding on the backs of kori bustards, ostriches and even game-drive vehicles, using the moving perch to catch insects flushed from the grass ahead.
Life in the wild
Behavior & relationships
Behavior
Hawks insects on the wing in fast, agile flight, often following grass fires and large moving animals to catch what they flush.
Social life
Intensely colonial, with colonies of hundreds to several thousand pairs nesting in adjacent bank tunnels.
What makes it remarkable
Special features
Vast riverbank breeding colonies, and the habit of riding on the backs of large animals to hunt flushed insects.
