Rainbow Bee Eaters at Boulders

Photo by Kelvin Marshall

By D Llegs

A picture paints a thousand words (and I’ve only got 450) so take a good look at this beautiful bird and wonder at the pallet from whence it came. The bird behind the mask is the Rainbow bee-eater, one of the most colourful birds you’ll see this spring. They are common in the heath north of town and at Boulder Beach.

As the name suggests, Rainbow bee-eaters eat bees, but they also eat other insects like dragonflies, wasps, and beetles. They are extremely acrobatic and that’s exactly how they catch their prey. Not much escapes their sickle–shaped beaks once they’ve targeted an insect inflight and their long tail feathers help with this aerobatic predation. Males have long, thin streamers while females have shorter, thicker streamers.

Rainbow bee-eaters over-winter in northern parts of Australia and migrate to Lennox Head in September, staying until April. Naturally spring is the time for ‘the birds and the bees’, and that is exactly why the Rainbow bee-eaters are here. Unlike most other birds though, they have an unusual nesting habit. At Boulder Beach they excavate tunnels in sand dunes along the banks of the lagoon. The tunnels can be one metre long and a grass-lined chamber at the end contains 4-7 white eggs. Chicks hatch between October and November.

They are quite susceptible to roaming dogs while nesting. If disturbed they will abandon their nests so keep your eyes peeled for these beauties and please keep your dog on a tight leash.

Another local bird nesting on-ground, rather than in-ground, at this time of year is Richard’s pipit. It is one of Australia’s most common birds yet most people haven’t heard of it. They are grey, nondescript little birds somewhat like a thin sparrow without the brown colouring and they nest in grass cups under low bushes or in dense grassy clumps. They too are extremely vulnerable to free-roaming dogs.

Unfortunately I see many dog owners allowing their dogs to run-free over the headlands. They are usually unaware that their pooches can completely destroy the nests of ground-dwelling birds, even eating eggs, or worse, eating the cute, fluffy, young chicks.

Boulder Beach, Sharpe’s Beach, Skennar’s Head and the entire Lennox headland are dog ‘on-leash’ areas so please do the right thing and keep your dogs ‘on-leash’, even small dogs. All dogs endanger native fauna just by being in their environment.

As we continue to regenerate vegetation along the coast, the habitat we produce will slowly support more and more native fauna such as ground dwelling birds, lizards and wallabies. So please respect our native fauna by allowing them to live happy, undisturbed lives.