Bee-eater catching fish in lake?
Posted by BESG on 6 October 08, Monday
Contributed by Lee Tiah Khee
Lee Tiah Khee managed to photograph a Blue-tailed Bee-eater (Merops philippinus) diving into the water of the Symphony Lake at the Singapore Botanic Gardens on 18th August 2008.
He spent time observing the birds and noticed that the birds flew to a perch in a nearby tree immediately after the dive. There, they bashed their catch against the branch before swallowing. What exactly they caught, Tiah Khee was not able to say. His guess is that they may be some insects. Maybe next time he would be able to provide photographic evidence.
We posted two earlier accounts of the Blue-tailed Bee-eater diving in the Symphony Lake. In one, we suspected that the bird was fishing. The second post showed proof that it was taking a dip. Now, we have proof that the bee-eater caught something, a fish probably, from the water.
This post is a cooperative effort between NaturePixels.org and BESG to bring the study of bird behaviour through photography to a wider audience.
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Categories: Feeding strategy
Pingback by Bird Ecology Study Group » Naval aviation of Blue-tailed Bee-eaters
Made Saturday, 20 of December , 2008 at 10:33 am
[...] prior to impact with the water surface, the wings here are more swept back than those in Lee Tiah Khee’s photograph (top right). This could be because the bird needed to slow down and make precise adjustments to its [...]
