Bird of the Week – Southern carmine bee-eater
The Zulu name is iNkotha-enkulu and in Afrikaans die rooiborsbyvreter.
A locally common breeding intra-African migrant which arrives in Zimbabwe from August until November.
After breeding, they disperse to Zululand, Limpopo and Lowveld in Mpumalanga. They are highly gregarious at all times in flocks of hundreds of birds. Favouring river valleys and floodplains, usually with vertical banks when breeding.
These bee-eaters roost communally and scatter widely in the day. They hawk large flying insects from their perch over river, at grass fires and around large mammals. Bathes by splash-diving into water. They are active mainly in the morning and evening, but lethargic around midday.
The carmines call is a rolling rik – rik – rik – rak higher pitched on last note. The nest is a straight, slightly declining burrow one and a half to two metres long in a vertical river bank. The chamber is lined with insect remains. Two to five white eggs are laid. The incubation time is unrecorded and they are nestlings for about 30 days.
The Zulu name is iNkotha-enkulu and in Afrikaans die rooiborsbyvreter.
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