The bee-eater's beak is like a fine needle and its tongue is like a fine thread. The bee-eater's eyes are like two shining black dots. The feathers on the wings are very thin, as if they were transparent. Bee-eaters have short, small feet that are hard to detect. Bee-eaters rarely use their feet, stopping only for the night. Bee-eaters fly continuously and very fast, making a buzzing sound.

The bee-eater is an amazing creature whose existence divides the human race into two camps. People with bee phobia worship them because the birds like to eat bees and wasps. Beekeepers hate them and call them bee-eaters. Neither was wrong in their judgment.

Bee-eaters are not only found throughout Europe, but are also abundant in western Asia. In addition to resident southern African populations, the species is strongly migratory and overwinters in tropical Africa.

Like other bee-eaters, this species is a colorful bird. Of course, bright colors attract the attention of other predators, but the bee-eaters themselves don't really care. Her strength lies not in her ability to blend in with the branches, but in her excellent flying skills. Bee-eaters are no worse than swifts in gliding on drafts, and they also feel unsafe on firm ground.

Like other birds, bee-eaters hunt on the fly. Only instead of butterflies and mosquitoes, they prey on beetles, dragonflies, bees and wasps. They are practically insect fighters (in terms of their body weight), so even a 20cm long predator bird would be a bit dangerous. But if they knock the insects on the tree a few times, they are no longer a danger.

But even more surprising than the bee-eating nature of their diet is their courtship. Male bee-eaters give captured insects to female bee-eaters as gifts, and female bee-eaters almost always accept food from males -- their love is based on something material.

We all know that many birds seem to be more spiritual in their courtship. In red-crowned cranes, for example, males sing and dance lightly in front of females to impress them. However, they do not know that there are other birds in nature, such as bee-eaters, which are very materialistic and realistic.

A normal bee-eater family consists of a mother, a father, and five or six hungry and noisy birds. Fortunately, this love affair doesn't last more than two months. By midsummer, the birds begin to take off, leaving their parents. The new generation will have children next spring after spending the winter in Africa.

Bee-eaters living near hives eat a diet containing 60-80 percent of bees. Bee-eaters' greed makes them more colorful. Adult birds need an average of up to 250 insects per day! Why so many? Because birds' stomachs don't know how to digest chitin, their food is squeezed into pellets and regurgitated.

Despite their special diet, bee-eaters don't kill even 1% of bees. Starvation, frost and insecticides are far more effective in killing insects. And populations of bee-eaters that live far from humans may not eat bees at all.