Ruqayyah Snyder
While bees are typically thought of as docile honey producers, they can become a threat to other species when they escape their hives and go wild in places like the Australian bush. In Australia, feral honey bees have become a problem for some of the country's most beautiful and endangered native birds, such as the Baudin's cockatoo, the forest red-tailed black cockatoo, and the Carnaby's cockatoo. These birds and the bees compete for resources, particularly tree hollows, which are in limited supply. Additionally, some birds do eat bees as part of their insect diet. Bee-eaters, for example, are a group of birds that predominantly eat flying insects, especially bees, which they catch and kill by smashing them on branches to remove their stingers. Other bird species known to eat bees include woodpeckers, nuthatches, and the European honey-buzzard.
Do birds eat bees in Australia?
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Bee-eaters in Australia | Bee-eaters are a group of birds in the family Meropidae, containing 31 species. Some bee-eaters are found in Australia, such as the rainbow bee-eater. |
| Bee-eater diet | Bee-eaters predominantly eat flying insects, especially bees and wasps, which they catch on the wing. The proportion of a bee-eater's diet that is made up of bees can vary between 20-96%, with the average being 70%. |
| Bee-eater behaviour | Bee-eaters have long down-turned bills and medium to long wings. They form colonies and nest in burrows tunnelled into vertical sandy banks. They remove the stinger from bees by repeatedly hitting and rubbing the insect on a hard surface. |
| Other birds that eat bees | Other birds that eat bees include the European honey-buzzard, summer tanager, scarlet tanager, robins, blackbirds, great tits, house martins, swallows, and shrikes. |
| Feral bees in Australia | Feral bee colonies have been identified in many parts of Western Australia, and they can pose a threat to native bird species such as cockatoos. |
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What You'll Learn
Bee-eaters in Australia
The Rainbow Bee-eater (Merops ornatus) is the only species of Meropidae found in Australia. It is a brilliantly coloured, migratory bird with a wide distribution and stable population, which is classified as least concerning on the IUCN Red List. The rainbow bee-eater is a common species and can be found during the summer in forested areas in most of southern Australia, excluding Tasmania. They migrate north during the winter into northern Australia, New Guinea, and some of the southern islands of Indonesia. They may be found in open woodlands, beaches, dunes, cliffs, mangroves, and farmlands, and they often visit parks and private gardens. Like all bee-eaters, rainbow bee-eaters are very social birds. They are ground-nesting birds, and they roost together in large groups in dense undergrowth or large trees when they are not breeding.
The rainbow bee-eater is a medium-sized bird with a long, slim, curved bill and a long tail with distinctive tail streamers. It has a golden crown and a red eye set in a wide black stripe from the base of the bill to the ears, which is edged with a thin blue line. The throat is orange-yellow, with a broad black band separating it from a green breast. The upper back and wings are green, and the lower back and under-tail coverts are bright blue. The undersides of the wings and primary flight feathers are rufous to copper with green edges and tipped with black, and the tail is black to deep violet. The female rainbow bee-eater digs a long tunnel (up to 1 metre) in a sandy cliff face or eroded riverbank and creates a nesting chamber where she lays 3 to 7 eggs. Her male feeds her while she is digging, but they take turns to incubate the eggs.
Rainbow bee-eaters eat insects, mainly catching bees and wasps, as well as dragonflies, beetles, butterflies, and moths. They catch flying insects on the wing and carry them back to a perch to beat them against it before swallowing them. Bees and wasps are rubbed against the perch to remove the stings and venom glands. They can eat several hundred bees a day, so they are resented by beekeepers. However, their damage is generally balanced by their role in keeping pest insects such as locusts and hornets under control. The proportion of a bee-eater’s diet that is made up of bees and wasps depends on the species and can be anywhere between 20% and 96% with the average being 70%. Of these, honeybees make up a large part, sometimes as much as 89% of the overall food consumed, depending on how close a bee-eater colony is to an apiary.
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Nuthatches
There are several species of nuthatch, including the Eurasian, chestnut-vented, Kashmir, chestnut-bellied, white-breasted, and red-breasted nuthatches. The taxonomy of nuthatches is still a subject of debate among experts, with some suggesting that the genus Sitta be split to create a new genus for the red- and yellow-billed south Asian species and a third genus for the blue nuthatch.
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Summer tanagers
The summer tanager's habitat varies, with pine-oak forests preferred in the southeastern United States, and riparian lowlands in the southwest. They spend the breeding season in the southern United States and Northern Mexico, and overwinter in Mexico, Central America, and northern South America.
The oldest Summer Tanager on record was a male, recaptured and rereleased during banding operations in Arizona in 2021. He was at least 11 years old, having originally been banded in 2011.
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Feral bee colonies in Western Australia
Western Australia is home to thousands of feral bee colonies, which have taken up residence in trees and other suitable nesting sites. These feral bees are predominantly the European honey bee (Apis mellifera), an exotic species that was introduced to the Australian environment almost 200 years ago. While there are about 30,000 managed hives in Western Australia, the exact number of feral colonies is unknown.
The European honey bee was first brought to Australia by early colonists in the early 19th century for honey production and crop pollination. Over time, swarms of bees escaped and established feral nests in most parts of Australia, except for arid regions. These feral honey bees have spread across diverse habitats, including semi-arid eucalypt forests, rainforests, coastal heaths, farming and grazing lands, and urban areas.
Feral honey bees have become a significant problem in Western Australia due to changes in agriculture. The shift from grass-based grain farming to flowering plants, such as lupins and canola, has provided an abundance of nectar and pollen, leading to an increase in feral bee populations. These bees are considered pests as they are aggressive, tend to swarm, and offer little value for commercial honey production or crop pollination.
The impact of feral honey bees on native flora and fauna is a growing concern. They can outcompete native species for floral resources, disrupt natural pollination, and displace native wildlife from their habitats. Additionally, they pose a health risk to managed hives by transmitting diseases and parasites, such as Varroa mites and fungal infections. The WA Museum, during their fieldwork on black cockatoos, has encountered numerous feral bee hives that have taken over tree hollows, resulting in reduced nesting sites for other bird and mammal species.
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Woodpeckers
The presence of carpenter bee nest holes in wood attracts woodpeckers, who will peck through the wood to access the larvae, causing further damage. Carpenter bees do not eat wood but use it for egg-laying, creating small, perfectly round holes often accompanied by fresh sawdust.
In addition to their diet of insects, fruits, nuts, and sap, woodpeckers will opportunistically feed on carpenter bees they discover while foraging for larvae inside tree bark.
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Frequently asked questions
Yes, some birds in Australia do eat bees. Bee-eaters, for example, predominantly eat flying insects, especially bees and wasps. They are found in Africa, Asia, southern Europe, Australia, and New Guinea. The rainbow bee-eater is the species found in Australia.
When honey bees escape their hives and go wild in the bush, they become lethal competitors to some of Australia's most beautiful and endangered native birds, such as the cockatoos that live in the forests in the southwest of Western Australia.
Apart from bee-eaters, other birds that are known to eat bees include the European honey-buzzard, the summer tanager, robins, blackbirds, great tits, house martins, swallows, and shrikes.
