On the brink: Bee-eaters of Naguvanahalli

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Sharing this short "On the Brink: Bee-eaters of Naguvanahalli"

Many bird photographers visit this small sleepy village to photograph the blue-tailed bee-eaters. During my DSLR days, I had seen thousands of them perched everywhere. Now, their numbers have dwindled. This is representative of most of the bee-eater habitats in India.

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[Ronald Jackson]

Depressing and Bee-eaters don't need a lot by way of breeding habitat.

Bees themselves are having problems in parts of the world e.g. the USA due to neonicotinoid insecticides, which temporarily banned in the EU but no thanks to our Government who in favour.


Ron

[Sabyasachi Patra]

I agree with you Ron!
Bee-eaters don't need much of space. Unfortunately these days India is witnessing an unprecedented scale of land grabbing in the name of development. And on top of it, some of our planners and ministers want "river front development" as in some countries so that there can be more malls and cafeterias etc. The poor bee-eaters don't even have a bit space to dig their nests. :(

One of the shots that I got is of the bee-eater swallowing snail shell and pebbles. Digging of sand takes its toll on the beak, so instead of consuming calcium tablets like us, they swallow these shells. :)

[J. Stephen McDonald]

Beautiful birds. They look like darts with their streamlined shape. As environments changed slowly in the past, over many thousands of years, a lot of species were able to find ways to adapt and survive. But we've imposed drastic upheavals in their lives over just one century or less. Now, we're finding that the effects of our plundering are coming down fast on more living things than the balance of Nature can afford to lose. If evolution is all about survival, I wonder how and why we became what we are.