It’s wonderful to be still enjoying the antics of our local Rainbow Bee-eaters.
Unlike many other local birds they appear to have had a very successful breeding season – I’ve encountered a number of small groups throughout the Muckleford bush and in their usual haunts such as Green Gully. I expect them to be with us for another week or two before they had north again for the winter.
Rainbow Bee-eater, Green Gully, 10th March 2020
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Natural Newstead 
Dream bird for me to see in real life
Wonderful pix, again. Love the one that looks like it is tossing the dragonfly into the air.
Such wonderful shots of my favourite bird! Thanks Geoff. Your posts are a delight in my life. Cheers from Sarah
Great shots! Was the bee-eater playing with the dragon fly or did the dragonfly temporarily escape? We currently have a continuing corella influx and although they are noisy and destructive they do marvellous tricks. They hang upside down from anything no matter how flimsy, e.g. twigs, street lamps etc and swing wildly. If they fall off or the twig breaks they right themselves mid-air and find something else. They also spend lots of time shuffling sideways on branches to cuddle up and kiss, often in 3s.
Hi Kristin – what I captured is a typical bee-eater ‘trip’. They will toss the prey, such as this dragonfly, into the air and snap it again to hasten the prey’s demise. It enables them to change the position of the prey item in the bill. While it looks like they are playing I think it’s a smart feeding manoueuvre.
Cheers, Geoff
Hi Geoff,
I am searching and searching online to see where ‘north’ the Perth bee-eaters go. Do you have any research on them at all or be able to point where to go?
Hi HH, I can’t provide a definitive answer but suggest you have a look at the Birddata website (in the links under birds and birding on this blog). Peak numbers in SW WA are October to February (very few records outside that window). In NW WA peak numbers are over winter but they can be found there year round. Rainbow Bee-eaters have a wide distribution, in eastern Indonesia and New Guinea, as well as Australia. My best guess would be that the Perth birds are arriving from NW WA while the population up there is augmented by birds from further north over summer … but I could well be wrong!