Gratitude 20

Gentle Reader, we are still stuck on birds, which is to say, the beautifully coloured feathered creatures that fly and make our world a less ugly and far lovelier place.  Today, I will write a little about bee-eaters and their near cousins, the rollers and the motmots.   First I'll treat you to some images of bee-eaters, beginning with my paintings:












And now some Google Images:

And watch them fly!  They are like large rainbow hued swallows on the wing!

Bee eaters are Old World birds, being found in Southern Europe (European bee eater, natch!), Africa, Asia and Australia.  they eat bees, wasps and dragonflies.  They are incredibly social birds that flock together and cuddle with each other.  They also feed one another's young, whether they themselves have chicks or not.  They are so amazing, despite their appetite for bees which we need to keep our food crops going.

And now, their near cousins, the rollers, also Old World birds from basically the same regions.  First my painting of lilac breasted rollers:



And, fresh from our dear Uncle Google:

I have no paintings of motmots, but here is a Google Image of a blue-crowned motmot, which I have often seen in Costa Rica:


Here is the link if you want to see what they look like.  I haven't been able to find any images safe for my website or computer: https://www.google.ca/search?q=blue+crowned+motmot+images&biw=1518&bih=724&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwjK7un4-p_SAhUM6WMKHYmEBTEQsAQIGQ#imgrc=yH_CcC-DdtdSWM:

All these birds are in the same order as the kingfishers.   I'll bet a lot of you never imaged that feathers could be so beautiful!