From Opus

Photo by Gallus
Photographed: Victoria, Australia

Merops ornatus

[edit] Identification

17-20cm (including the tail streamers)

• Long, slim decurved bill
• Bluish tinge to long black tail with tail-streamers
• Golden crown
• Thick black eye-stripe reaching from the bill to the ears, edged with blue
• Orange-yellow throat with a broad black band separating it from a green breast
• Green above
• Coppery, black-tipped flight feathers
• Bright orange underwing, edged black
• Blue lower belly
• Red eye

Sexes are similar but the Female's tail streamers are shorter and thicker than those of the male.
Immature birds are duller and greener, lacking the black chest band and the long tail streamers.

[edit] Distribution

Australia, eastern Indonesia, New Guinea and, occasionally, the Solomon Islands.

[edit] Taxonomy

Monotypic

[edit] Habitat

Open forests, woodlands and shrublands, and cleared areas, usually near water.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Diet

The diet consists of insects, mainly bees and wasps, as well as dragonflies, beetles, butterflies and moths.

[edit] Breeding

The nest site is chosen jointly by the pair. A long tunnel is dug into a sandy bank, terminating in a nest chamber, which is then lined with grass. The eggs and young are tended by both parents.

[edit] References

1. Birds in Backyards

[edit] External Links