Bee-Eaters

The bee-eater is a colourful, exotic bird that is found in many eastern countries and in mainland Eurasia. When I went to Lake Sevan in Armenia, I spotted an unknown bird sitting high up on a thorny bush. After making a few good photographs, I decided to observe the animal through my binoculars. Since I am not a camera expert, I could not tell you how this happened, but my camera dimmed the light on the screen, so I could not see the colours clearly, and this is why when I looked at the songbird, I was surprised to see that it had a yellow breast, a red cap, a short, curved black beak, red wings, a green underbelly and yellow sides!

For me, bee-eaters were half a myth before that moment in time; they were living somewhere or other, but I never saw them (and hardly believed I ever would). Like a European roller (a blue bird with a black band around its eye), or a Golden oriole (a golden-yellow bird with a downcurved red beak and also a black band around its eye), I was absolutely sure that only professional birdwatchers ever snapped bee-eaters. Although I cannot call myself that, I still got a great photo with a cormorant flying in the background: