Rainbow Bee-eaters

Rainbow Bee eater

The Rainbow Bee-eater would have to be one of my all time favourite birds. We regularly have these beautiful birds in our garden, flitting around catching bees and other winged insects. We always enjoy hearing their calls when they arrive in spring, and feel a little loss when they leave in late summer or early autumn. They are wise spending the winter months in the warmer parts of northern Australia.

This year we haven’t heard or seen them nearly as much as usual. Perhaps they didn’t hang around to nest in our area this year. Yesterday we heard about three or four of them calling from our mallee scrub. I went outside and had good views of at least two of them. Within a few minutes they appeared to have moved on. Perhaps they are already on their migration north.