Blue- throated Bee- eater

Common name: Blue- throated Bee- eater

Binomial name: Merops viridis

Description: Adults may grow to 30cm, including tail streamers. Their throats are a signature blue; and they have mostly bluish- green plumage with mahogany crowns and mantles, black eyestripes and a bluish streamer tail. Juveniles are mostly green, and lack the spectacular crown and mantle.

Call: Rolling “prrrrrp” chirp

Diet: Small insects like bees, flies, dragonflies, beetles

Habitat: A wide variety of flat plains

Native countries: South China down to Southeast Asia

IUCN Conservation Red List: Least concern

Not- so- fun facts: They practise asynchronous brooding, resulting in eggs hatching at different times. Siblicide is common among siblings to increase the larger and older chicks’s survival, which will then gain greater access to food from parents. Chicks normally die in order, from youngest and smallest. It has also been featured on Singapore’s S$100 Bird Series currency notes released between 1976 and 1984.