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Monday, February 13, 2012

bee-eater ejecting bolus @ bukit brown - Feb2012

Came across a well-used dead tree in a small valley at Bukit Brown. There were 3 blue-tailed bee-eaters using that tree to launch themselves at unsuspecting bugs flying by. Successful catches were brought back to the tree for consumption. The clip shows a bee-eater ejecting a bolus/pellet via its mouth. The bolus/pellet looks like the remainder of a beetle all neatly rolled up into a smooth oval ball. However, it could also have been the combined undigested remains of quite a few insects compressed into a tight ovalised ball.

The latter part of the clip is slowed-down to 12.5% and shows that the bird sort of chokes momentarily before managing to fully eject the bolus/pellet.

Time : 9.15am,
Location : Bukit Brown - stream valley.


There have been other reports of bee-eaters ejecting or casting boluses or pellets :

Read more about the blue-tailed bee-eater :

and find out about Bukit Brown here :


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