Bee-eater Recap

Missed the bus today, so I went to the library, and then the bee-eater Merops ornatus came into my mind. I really wanted to find out the missing part. Somehow I asked myself, what if not every bee-eater has a tail shaft, as I supposed? Maybe the drawing was a juvenile. By looking on the chest crest, which the drawing poorly shows, it turned out to be an adult. Either mature sex has a tail shaft¹, but the male's often break when nesting. Since the original picture showed an insect at the beak, the bird might indeed be one of the nesting pair. So, I was wrong. The world is just so big. p/s: Oh ya, if you wondered why there was a "Recap" after the flight post, see this.

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Reference: ¹Pizzey, G 2007, 'Tropical kingfishers, bee-eater, dollarbird', in The field guide to the birds of australia, Updated and rev. 8th ed. edn, HarperCollins ; Publishers Group UK [distributor], Pymble, N.S.W., pp. 328 p.