Bee-eater Call MP3s
Get the Bee-eater's distinctive rolling "prrp" call in a clean, ready-to-use recording for field or study use.
Also known as
Recordings (4)
About this species
Around 28 cm in length, the Bee-eater (Merops apiaster) is a passerine songbird: a riot of colour — chestnut, gold, turquoise and blue — and a slender down-curved bill. It nests in colonies in sandy banks and forages over open, sunny country.
Flocks announce themselves with a far-carrying, rolling 'prruip' from high overhead. It hawks bees, wasps and dragonflies in mid-air, de-stinging them against a perch before swallowing. It hunts on the wing with buoyant, swallow-like grace, returning to a favourite perch. On migration it moves through Greece and the Mediterranean in great numbers, a familiar bird of field, wood and garden.
Legal use
The European Bee-eater is a protected species across virtually its entire range, including the EU, UK, and under the Bern Convention, and it is not a legally huntable game bird anywhere it breeds or migrates. Unfortunately it is still illegally shot in parts of the Mediterranean — Cyprus has documented conflict where beekeepers, once licensed only to scare birds from apiaries with shotguns, have illegally killed bee-eaters instead — and it is one of the species most frequently recorded in poached-bird trophy photos from Lebanon and other Middle Eastern hotspots. This is unlawful persecution, not sanctioned hunting, everywhere it occurs. This recording is intended for identification, birdwatching, and research use only. Because local rules on recordings, playback, and protected-species disturbance differ by country, please review our full country-by-country disclaimer before using this audio in the field.