Every spring the European bee-eaters return to the Camargue – and for many photographers they are the most colourful birds of the whole season.
When do bee-eaters arrive?
On my mas they arrive almost like clockwork: every year around 18 to 20 April. You usually hear them before you see them – their soft, rolling calls high in the sky are unmistakable. In a year with bad weather, they may settle at their breeding sites a little later.
I am lucky: every year the bee-eaters nest in an earth bank right next to our house. From there I can observe them throughout the season – and so can my guests.
What you can photograph
Courtship gifts. The male presents the female with a dragonfly or another large insect. Before handing it over or eating it, the bee-eater beats it against the branch several times, then tosses it into the air and catches it head first in its wide-open bill – a moment that is as fast as it is spectacular.
Squabbles. Disputes are common, for example when one bird tries to "steal" another's nesting spot. It ends with a loud chase – and some very lively pictures.
Nesting. The bee-eaters dig their nesting tunnel into the earth bank. It can be up to two metres long and ends in the chamber where the small, glossy white eggs are laid. Bee-eaters raise one brood a year, usually around five eggs.
Pellets. Bee-eaters sometimes regurgitate small brown pellets, a bit like owls. They contain indigestible parts, mostly the hard shells of bees and wasps. Their diet also includes dragonflies, flies, mosquitoes and butterflies.
Photographing them without disturbing them
I photograph the bee-eaters from hides placed at the right distance from their nesting bank – far enough away that the birds are not disturbed, yet close enough for great images. These are the same hides my guests use. The birds’ wellbeing always comes first: they court, feed and tend their nests completely undisturbed, and that is exactly what makes the pictures so natural.
On my mas, the bee-eaters stay until the end of July.
Would you like to photograph these colourful birds in the Camargue yourself?