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2012-01-04

Bee-eater

Bee-eater is one of the most colourful birds in the world. The underpart is blue to blue-green and mainly red and orange upperbody although there are some green and blue shades there. Throat is yellow and bill black, and a black stripe crosses a red eye.

What is helpful in observing this bird is its willingness to seat on wires in large numbers, remote trees and other elevated areas where they can look out for insects to eat.

How to recognize young from adult?

Young bee-eater is much less bright and smaller than adults. Chicks do not have longer middle feathers in their tails either.

What do they eat?

Mostly they eat insects caught in a flight. They usually hunt for bees, wasps and humble-bees and occasionally coleopters and dragonflies. Each day during feeding period they have to catch insects equal to mass of 225 bees.

Bee-eaters’ nest

European Bee-eater does not breed in s Africa. They are non breeding Palearctic migrant from September to March or early April.

Wintering

Wintering sites of bee-eaters are located in Africa, south of Sahara desert.

Distribution of European bee-eaters in s Africa

They are found on a range of woodland and shrublands and absent in driest and wettest regions.

Migrations

Bee-eaters just like white storks have two main migration tracks. Birds from south-western Europe go through Strait of Gibraltar and directing to south fly through Sahara. They head for western Africa. Birds from eastern Europe go to southern Africa via Israel.

Birds encounter many difficulties and dangers during their journeys. Some are caused by people. There are countries where bee-eaters are being killed by bee-keepers who treat them as pests. Scientists estimate one out of three bee-eaters leaving Europe in autumn will come back in spring.

How do birds keep warm in cold weather?

2012-01-04

They do that in various ways. Most fluff out their feathers to trap an insulating layer of warm air. Some also huddle together in winter roosts, taking advantage of their collective body temperature. Food is a vital factor: a hungry, underweight bird is far more likely to perish from cold than a fat healthy one!

127 287 birds’ observations from Europe, Asia and Africa

2011-12-08

The sixth edition of Spring Alive, an educational campaign of BirdLife International, finished last week. Birdwatching gains in popularity year by year. On www.springalive.net over 127 thousand observations were registered this year, which amounts to over 20% growth in comparison to the last year. Spring Alive is an international project run by BirdLife Partners in over 30 countries from Europe, Asia and Africa. 2011 was the first season for Croatia and Kazakhstan.

Support for Spring Alive Campaign for Africa gains momentum

2011-10-17

A number of people have been submitting observations of migratory birds to the Spring Alive website (www.springalive.net), and bird club members are encouraged to visit this website and submit their records. For more information about the campaign, please contact Joe Peu on 011 789-1122 or .

Win big prizes with Spring Alive drawing competition

2011-09-19

Spring Alive drawing competition

Make a drawing on an A4 or A3 sheet showing what Spring means to you

The heading of your drawing should be as follows: "My Spring". The heading should be followed by this sentence: "I would like to participate in the Spring Alive competition. Please find attached my drawing. I confirm that this is my original work. I am younger than 16 years old". Please tell us how old you are.

Prizes

There are Prizes to the value of 150 British Pounds to be won. See competition rules below for more info.

Closing Date

The closing date for the competition is 15 November 2011

Send your entries to or by Post to

Spring Alive

BirdLife South Africa

PO Box 515 Randburg 2125

Entries sent by post should reach us before the 15 November 2011

Spring Alive project Africa was launched

2011-09-14

The Spring Alive project was launched on 3 September at Mt Moreland, one of the largest Blue Swallow roosting places in South Africa. The event was attended by 50 people, 12 of whom were local community members. The rest of the attendees were from two schools from around Mt Moreland. Angie Wilken, the local Mt Moreland and Barn Swallow ambassador in the area, spoke about the Barn Swallow and the area. Joe Peu spoke about National Bird Week and introduced the Spring Alive website to the attendees. The day was ended with a migration game which the learners enjoyed very much.

The same event was held at Chrissiesmeer on 7 September with 23 learners from Lakes Chrissies High School attending. The event was also attended by Barbi Forsyth from the Witwatersrand Bird Club, a representative from EWT and the members of the local ANC Youth League. There were also meeting to (1) discuss recruiting new members of the community for the upholstery project, and (2) plan for the environmental rights workshop (on 16 September) and biodiversity monitoring workshop (17 September). The group was then taken on a tour of the Kwachibikhulu Community Development Centre. In reciprocation, these community youth leaders joined the team during the afternoon at Boetsepan for the Bird of the Year launch event. This event was attended by 24 Grade 8 and 9 learners and their teacher from Lake Chrissie High School. Joe Peu did a fantastic job motivating, enthusing and educating the children, and a fun time in the sun was had by all. Afterwards, Ursula Franke (EWT) taught us how to do power line collision and electrocution monitoring, in preparation for the Chrissiesmeer biodiversity monitoring workshop.

The Wakkerstroom event was attended by the local Income Generation Group members, many of whom are elderly. The week’s activities ended with an event with Gauteng Alliance learners at Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve on 9 September. The learners came from Monde, Reahile, Dawn Park and Skeen primary schools.

Community members are encouraged to visit Spring Alive website to register their 1^st sightings of Barn Swallow, swifts, cuckoo, European Bee-eater and the White Stock on www.springalive.net. There are also exciting interactivities games for children and also adult. To see these exciting activities on the Spring Alive website, click “To Peck” and enjoy.

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