Brilliant little critter
By Lachlan Ellis
Don’t blink, or you will miss it.
The delightful looking bird also comes with a new local title, named by Moorabool Shire Council as their ‘Critter of the Month’. It spends the warm months here in Victoria, including within the Shire.
Local wildlife and bird photographer David Whelan, said the rainbow bee-eater was more common than people might realise, but had proven a tricky bird to snap photos of.
“They’re just amazing to see…unless you’re a dedicated birdwatcher or you live on the land and you’ve seen them, you probably wouldn’t know they’re around here,” he told the Moorabool News.
The beautiful bird is Australia’s only member of the bee-eater family – most bee-eaters live in Africa and Asia – and spends winter up in Queensland enjoying the warmer weather.
As the name suggests, it has striking, colourful plumage, with shades of green, blue, and yellow blending together.
Mr Whelan said he’s seen them every year pretty much since 2014.
“They can be hard to spot, but if you see them up close, you’re not going to miss them because they’re so colourful. Their reaction time is really quick, they launch from their perches so fast, so they’re very hard to anticipate when you’re photographing them,” he said.
“They’re the most resplendent birds, absolutely beautiful. They make a very distinctive sort of ‘zimming’ noise…it sounds like someone’s running their fingers along a comb. They nest in sandy riverbanks and build tunnels in the spring, then migrate north in mid to late-February.”
The rainbow bee-eater can be spotted in Moorabool from October until February, and is usually seen along waterways such as the Lerderderg River and Parwan Creek.
It feeds on insects, including bees as the name suggests, as well as wasps, dragonflies, beetles, butterflies, and moths. It catches the insect mid-flight and brings it back to a perch to hit it against it, before swallowing it.
For more information on the rainbow bee-eater, visit www.birdlife.org.au/bird-profile/rainbow-bee-eater.