olive bee-eater

In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the olive bee-eater in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected on the island of Madagascar. He used the French name Le guespier de Madagascar and the Latin Apiaster Madagascariensis.{{ cite book | last=Brisson | first=Mathurin Jacques | author-link=Mathurin Jacques Brisson | year=1760 | title=Ornithologie, ou, Méthode contenant la division des oiseaux en ordres, sections, genres, especes & leurs variétés | volume=4 | language=fr, la | place=Paris | publisher=Jean-Baptiste Bauche | pages=545–549, Plate 42 fig 1 | url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/36195756 }} The two stars (**) at the start of the section indicates that Brisson based his description on the examination of a specimen. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.{{cite journal |last=Allen | first=J.A. | author-link=Joel Asaph Allen | year=1910 | title=Collation of Brisson's genera of birds with those of Linnaeus |journal=Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History |volume=28 | pages=317–335 | hdl=2246/678 }} When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the olive bee-eater. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the current binomial name Merops superciliosus and cited Brisson's work.{{cite book | last=Linnaeus | first=Carl | author-link=Carl Linnaeus | year=1766 | title=Systema naturae : per regna tria natura, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis | edition=12th | volume=1, Part 1 | publisher=Laurentii Salvii | place=Holmiae (Stockholm) | language=la | page=183 | url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42946379 }} The specific name superciliosus is Latin for "supercilious", "haughty" or "eye-browed".{{cite web | last=Jobling | first=J.A. | year=2018 | title= Key to Scientific Names in Ornithology | editor1-last=del Hoyo | editor1-first=J. | editor2-last=Elliott | editor2-first=A. | editor3-last=Sargatal | editor3-first=J. | editor4-last=Christie | editor4-first=D.A. | editor5-last=de Juana | editor5-first=E. | work=Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive | publisher=Lynx Edicions | url=https://www.hbw.com/dictionary/definition/superciliosa-superciliosum-superciliosus | access-date=6 July 2018 }}

Two subspecies are recognised:{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | year=2018 | title=Todies, motmots, bee-eaters, hoopoes, wood hoopoes, hornbills | work=World Bird List Version 8.2 | url=http://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/todies/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union | access-date=6 July 2018 }}

• M. s. superciliosus Linnaeus, 1766 – east Africa, Madagascar and the Comoro Islands
• M. s. alternans Clancey, 1971 – west Angola and northwest Namibia

The olive bee-eater grows to a length of {{convert|23|to|26|cm|in|1|abbr=on}} with its tail streamers adding up to {{convert|7|cm|in|1|abbr=on}}. The sexes are similar, and adults have bronzy-green plumage with an olive cap and white forehead, eyebrows, chin and cheeks. The rump and tail are blue, apart from the streamers, which are black.{{cite book|author1=Fry, C. Hilary|author2=Fry, Kathie |title=Kingfishers, Bee-eaters and Rollers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U_XUBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA273 |year=2010|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4081-3525-9 |pages=273}}

The olive bee-eater is found in the grassland and coastal mountain forests of East Africa and Madagascar, and an isolated population can be found in coastal Angola.{{cite web| url=http://maps.iucnredlist.org/map.html?id=106001178 |title=Range map |publisher=IUCN |access-date=16 October 2016}} There are two subspecies; M. s. superciliosus occurs in eastern Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya, and southwards through East Africa to southern Mozambique and the Zambezi Valley, as well as the Comoro Islands and Madagascar; M. s. alternans occurs in western Angola and northwestern Namibia.{{cite web |url=http://www.hbw.com/node/55845 |title=Olive Bee-eater (Merops superciliosus) |author=Fry, H. |author2=Boesman, P.|year=2016 |work=Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive |publisher=Lynx Edicions, Barcelona |access-date=16 October 2016}}

They are partially migratory, and usually breed only in the southern portion of their range, moving north for the dry season in southern Africa. It lays four eggs in a burrow nest at the beginning of the southern African wet season, and the chicks usually hatch at the beginning of December.{{cite web |url=http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/birds/meropidae/merops_superciliosus.htm |title=Madagascar Bee-eater, Olive Bee-eater |work=Biodiversity Explorer |publisher=Iziko |access-date=16 October 2016}} Unlike most bee-eaters, the species does not practice cooperative breeding and post-fledging dependence is only around 19 days, which is typical of temperate zone passerines and about half that of most Meropidae species.{{cite journal |author=Langen, Tom A. |year=2000 |title=Prolonged offspring dependence and cooperative breeding in birds |journal= Behavioral Ecology |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=367–377 |doi=10.1093/beheco/11.4.367 |doi-access=free }}

Image:Madagascar olive bee-eater merops superciliosus.jpg|A bee caught in the Anjajavy Forest

Image:Madagascar bee-eaters.jpg|Pair in the Anjajavy Forest

Image:Madagascar bee-eater (Merops superciliosus superciliosus) in flight.jpg|In flight over a swimming pool at Anjajavy

{{Reflist}}

• Olive bee-eater - [http://sabap2.adu.org.za/docs/sabap1/439.pdf Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds].

{{Bee-eaters}}

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olive bee-eater

Category:Birds of Sub-Saharan Africa

olive bee-eater

olive bee-eater