Diets and Predatory Behavior of Blue-throated Bee-eater Merops viridis
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School of Life Sciences, Jinggangshan University,Library of Jinggangshan University, Jinggangshan University,School of Life Sciences, Jinggangshan University,School of Life Sciences, Jinggangshan University,School of Life Sciences, Jinggangshan University

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    Abstract:

    The Blue-throated Bee-eaters (Merops viridis) is widely distributed in south China, however, received little concern for basic biological studies. During 2011﹣2016, we observed the predatory behaviour and recorded the prey items of Blue-throated Bee-eaters in the suburb of Ji′An, Jiangxi Province. Our results showed that 90.6% of prey items were insects from taxa of Hymenoptera (26.0%), Lepidoptera (26.3%) and Odonata (38.3%). The percentages of different insect types varied significantly between early- and late-breeding seasons, possibly caused by the differences in life history of different insect taxa. The birds dealt with different kinds of insects with different ways before swallowing those foods. In addition, we also found there were mussel shells scattered in the bottom of the nest chambers of the Bee-eaters (Fig. 1). The birds may forage on small mussel shells to meet the additional calcium needs during egg-laying stage, because the mussel shells were stained with debris of insect corpses, as the marks of being swallowed and digested. Although the insect preys were relatively abundant in south China, Blue-throated Bee-eater is not common in its distribution range, suggesting that food supply might not the limiting factor. Limited distribution and habitat loses are threatening the survival of the Blue-throated Bee-eater, more studies are needed in the future to provide suggestions and measures for its conservation.

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KE Dian-Hua, DENG Yanhui, GUO Weibin, ZHANG Zhengguang, HUANG Zuhao. 2017. Diets and Predatory Behavior of Blue-throated Bee-eater Merops viridis. Chinese Journal of Zoology, 52(4): 592-597.

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History
  • Received:November 06,2016
  • Revised:June 18,2017
  • Adopted:May 28,2017
  • Online: July 17,2017
  • Published: