Southern Carmine Bee-eater
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[Photo] Southern Carmine Bee-eater (Merops nubicoides) adult male. Source Transvaal Museum, Pretoria. Date 17 February 1908. Author Claude Gibney Finch-Davies (1875-1920)

The Southern Carmine Bee-eater (Merops nubicoides) (formerly Carmine Bee-eater) occurs from Zululand and Namibia to Gabon, eastern Zaire and Kenya.

This striking bird is mostly rose-coloured with the crown and undertail coverts blue. It is found usually in low-altitude river valleys and floodplains, preferring vertical banks suitable for tunneling when breeding. Breeding August-November in Zimbabwe, they move south to South Africa for the summer months, and migrate to equatorial Africa from March to August.

This is a highly sociable species, gathering in large flocks, in or out of breeding season. They roost communally in trees or reedbeds, and disperse widely during the day, hawking flying insects from any perch available, including the backs of large animals or even the Kori Bustard. They are attracted to veldfires because of the flushed insects, and are often seen circling high in the air.

Nesting is at the end of a 1-2m long burrow in an earthen bank, where the lay from 2-5 eggs.

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