Huddle

The Green Bee-eater (Merops oientalis) is not exotic. I see many from my balcony every day, sitting on wires and making erratic dashes to pick up flying insects. Somehow I’d never seen them roosting in groups before. This group huddled together on a winter morning looked very funny and I clicked a burst of photos. In spite of seeing them every day, I hadn’t thought to check out their roosting habits. I read that there could be hundreds of them roosting together. These six hoods huddled up against each other are nothing compared to such large groups, but they are a funny sight at 8 o’clock on a February morning when other birds are already extremely active. They looked like a really sleepy volley-ball team. The early bird may get the worm, but the birds which eat insects need not wake up until insects are warm enough to fly about. Bee eaters can sleep late, it turns out.