The Southern Carmine Bee-eater is a regular summer visitor to South Africa, so they are not entirely unfamiliar to us. We have however not seen them in such numbers before as we have during our December 2021 visit to the Kruger National Park.
Merops nubicoides
The beautiful Southern Carmine Bee-eater is a bird that lives in open woodland and savannah habitats, often found near open water, and that feeds exclusively on insects, most of which they catch in flight and usually much bigger than the fare enjoyed by most other bee-eaters. They’re often seen hunting near to large mammals and ground birds – often using them as a perch – catching the insects these bigger animals disturb into flying. They’re attracted to veld fires for similar reasons.
Southern Carmine Bee-eaters breed in huge colonies numbering up to a thousand pairs, where each monogamous pair excavates a nest-tunnel up to 3.5m deep into earthen banks, usually along rivers and gullies. The clutch of 1-6 eggs take 2 weeks to hatch and the chicks then leave the nest when they’re around 3 weeks old. When not breeding they are less gregarious and more dispersed. Southern Carmine Bee-eaters are the largest of the family occurring in Africa, measuring around 25cm in length (excluding the elongated tail feathers) with a weight of about 62g.
In South Africa, Southern Carmine Bee-eaters are found mainly in the provinces of Mpumalanga and Limpopo, and marginally into Gauteng and North West, with most birds arriving locally by December and departing again by March. Interestingly the majority of birds arrive to breed in our northern neighbours Zambia, Zimbabwe and the Okavango region of Botswana from August to November, with the chicks already fledged by the time they then move further southwards to other parts of Botswana and South Africa’s northern provinces. At the onset of our autumn season they then return northwards to countries as far afield as the DRC and Tanzania. Only in a very narrow band crossing parts of Angola, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique are they resident throughout the year. The IUCN lists the Southern Carmine Bee-eater as being of least concern.
DeWetsWild 
Nou hoe is dit dan nou dat hierdie voeltjies soos klein rooi appeltjies aan die takke lyk? Pragtige foto’s!
Dis n mooi vergelyking, dankie Corna!
Hulle is pragtig Dries! Ken hulle glad nie!
Dis maar selde dat een dit sover suid sal haal soos Langebaan, Aletta. Julle moet maar bietjie n laat somer besoek aan die Krugerwildtuin maak.
What a surprising little bird.
We were certainly surprised to see so many of them – a happy surprise!
These beautiful birds are such a joy to see – you have been blessed with so many sightings.
We felt very lucky, Anne. The good early rains must have had something to do with their swollen numbers compared to previous December visits of ours.
So amazing photos of these lovely birds and nature , inspiring lines 🌷🐦🙏😍♥️👍🏻grace wishes 👏🌺
You are very kind, Thattamma. Thank you.
They’re so pretty and I especially like the top shot and the bottom left shot. I also like that ocean shot at the very top with your blog title on it. 🙂
Thank you very much, Janet!
Beautiful birds! I wish I had them in my backyard. Thanks, D. 🙂
I’m with you there, H.J! Thank you.
Such beautiful birds! I also loved the Greater Painted Snipes in your previous post 🙂
Hope you and all your family are continuing to stay safe and well dear friend.
Thank you, Takami!
We’re grateful to be able to say that we are well, with our “fourth wave” of the pandemic tapering down in South Africa. I hope the same holds true for you?
Absolutely beautiful and elegant birds. Thanks for the information on them too!
And in the air they’re even more amazing, swooping and rolling like jet fighters to catch their prey.
Such beautiful photos and such beautiful birds 🥰
Thank you very much for the kind words, and welcome here!