Bird of the Week – The little bee-eater
The Zulu name is inkotha and Afrikaans, the kleinbyvreter.
THE little bee-eater is a common resident to the coastal belt of KZN, northern Zululand, Swaziland, lowveld of Mpumalanga and Limpopo.
These bee-eaters enjoy bushveld, open woodland, savanna, streams and reedbeds.
They are found solitary or in pairs by day. At night, they often roost on branches in tightly bunched rows of up to 15 birds.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BexW7-hBzlU/?tagged=littlebeeeater
The call is a high pitched ‘kreee-kree’ and a sharp ‘kip’ but they are seldom vocal.
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They enjoy feeding on most flying insects. The birds’ breeding season is from September to November. Two to six white eggs are laid in a nest which is a small burrow about 50cm to 1.3 metres long in a bank or an antbear hole. Incubation is 19 to 20 days and nestlings remain for 29 days.
The Zulu name is inkotha and Afrikaans, the kleinbyvreter.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba6cCj3hBrX/?tagged=littlebeeeater
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