Range

European bee eaters make their home in Europe, Africa and Asia.

. They can be found in the following countries: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Angola, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan,Bahrain, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, China, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Estonia, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iran, Iraq, Ireland,Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia,Libya, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Netherlands, Niger, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, SeychellesSierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Spain, Sudan, Sri Lanka, State of Palestine, Sweden, Switzerland, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Tanzania, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Habitat

Their wide range means they inhabit a range of habitats. This includes forest, savanna, shrubland, grassland and wetlands. In human inhabited areas they will also inhabit pasture and cultivated areas.

Reproduction

In Europe breeding takes place from May to June.

Nesting will occur in a colony which may include a few nests or hundreds. Pairs are monogamous and will breed for many years as long as they both survive from year to year.

To cement their pair bond the male will feed the female.

Their nest is formed in a hole which is dug in an earth bank or sandy ground. They will dig this using their beak and kicking the spoil out with their feet. This may be up to a metre (3.3ft) long. It can take as many as 20 days to create this nest.

A female will lay between 4 and 10 eggs in to the nest. Incubation varies across their range between 13 and 20 days. Both sexes will share the incubation of the eggs.

The eggs will hatch with a gap in between each egg hatching. At birth the chicks will be featherless and blind. Both adults work together to raise the chicks.

They grow quickly and reach adult weight in just 15-17 days. It will be a month before the chicks leave the nest.

In the event a pair loses their chicks they may nest a second time that year.

Some chicks return to the nesting site of their parents to build their own nest.

Sexual maturity is reached at 1 year old.

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Behavior

European bee-eaters spend the day perching on a dead tree or telephone wire watching for prey items to fly past. They will fly out to grab these and then return to the perch to eat them.

Groups may migrate in groups of up to 100 members. They will fly from Europe to Africa where they spend the winter.

The European bee-eater is highly vocal making a range of calls including a “prruip” or “pruuk”.

Predators and Threats

They face predation from a range of animals including lizards, snakes and birds of prey.

Humans affect their population through hunting for sport and to remove them from apiary’s (bee farms) where they are considered a pest.

An emerging threat is the decline of bee populations. This is mainly due to the wide use of pesticides and the emergence of monocultures. Turning rivers in to canals also removes important nesting sites.

Quick facts

European bee-eaters have a small level of immunity to bee venom.