Iblis kecepatan (Speed Demons)
Blue-tailed Bee-eater
Merops philippinus
- tidak umum
- 56 km/h
- Risiko rendah
A slim emerald aerialist that hawks dragonflies in long curving glides above the paddy and returns to the same wire to beat each bee against the perch before swallowing it. Tail streamers like a sapphire afterthought.
- Populasi
- Global population size is not quantified for this species (listed as unknown); overall trend suspected stable. Only fragmentary regional counts exist, e.g. roughly 100–10,000 breeding pairs plus ~50–1,000 migrating individuals estimated for China, with similar-order estimates for Taiwan.
- Habitat
- Open lowland country near water — river valleys, estuaries, backwaters, paddy fields, and coastal areas; forages over open ground and even over the sea near coasts, and breeds colonially, tunneling nest burrows (up to ~2 m deep) into vertical sandy or sandy-clay-loam banks.
- Fakta menarik
- Before eating a captured bee or wasp, a Blue-tailed Bee-eater whacks it repeatedly against its perch to kill it and squeeze out the venom, neutralizing the sting.
- Sebaran
- South and Southeast Asia, breeding from Pakistan and India (river valleys such as the Godavari, Kaveri, Tunga Badra, and Krishna) across Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Indochina, Malaysia, and the Philippines to Indonesia and New Guinea; more northerly/inland breeding populations are migratory, wintering south into the Greater Sundas, Wallacea, and New Guinea.
- Makanan
- Aerial insectivore: sallies from an open perch to catch flying insects, feeding heavily on bees (including large carpenter bees, Xylocopa sp.), wasps and hornets, and taking dragonflies in roughly equal numbers to bees; prey is beaten and rubbed against the perch to kill it and expel venom/stings before swallowing.
- Ukuran
- 0,29 m
- Bentang sayap
- 0,36 m
- Masa hidup
- 2,5 tahun
