From Opus

Merops pusillus

Photo by wim de groot
The Gambia, January 2005

[edit] Identification

16 cm

• Green upper parts
• Yellow throat
• Black gorget
• Brown upper breast fading towards ochre on the belly
• Wings are green and brown
• Black beak
  

Sexes are alike

[edit] Distribution

Africa:
Western Africa: Mauritania, Senegambia, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola
Eastern Africa: Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi
Southern Africa: Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland

[edit] Taxonomy

[edit] Subspecies^[1]

Merops pusillus has five subspecies:

• M. p. pusillus

• Savannas from Senegambia to Cameroon, Sudan and north-eastern DRC

• M. p. ocularis

• Eastern DRC to northern Uganda, southern Sudan and Red Sea coast

• M. p. cyanostictus

• Eastern Ethiopia to Somalia and eastern Kenya

• M. p. meridionalis

• Congo basin to eastern DRC, Uganda and western Kenya south to KwaZulu-Natal

• M. p. argutus

• South-western Angola to south-western Zambia and Botswana

[edit] Habitat

Open country with scattered trees and bushes.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Diet

Their diet includes insects, especially bees, wasps and hornets, which are caught on the wing.The sting is removed by hitting the insect on a hard surface.

[edit] Breeding

A nest is made by making a tunnel in sandy banks, or sometimes in the entrance to an Aardvark den. They lay 4 to 6 spherical white eggs. Both the male and the female take care of the eggs.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.
2. Avibase
3. Kenya Birds
4. Wikipedia

• List of references

[edit] External Links