I came across this species of bird (Northern Carmine bee-eater) during birding in Bokkos last Saturday. That was the first time of encountering the species in my birding life. Quite a serendipity out there. A Nigerian birds atlassing team also reported coming across the species today in Gombe (Part of North-Eastern Nigeria). They have a unique food finding technique, that took a lot of my time, getting me rapt in observing that behaviour. I was so happy that I found such a beautiful bird species’ colony close to a dam where I have been observing the feeding successes of Pied Kingfisher. They were seen perching on a tree together (12 of them). They were seen scanning around for bees and other eatable insects, and on sighting any, they flew to snap it with their beak. So, their feeding went on, until a passerby went close and they flew to the next branch of tree, ensuring that there was a safety gap between them and the woman looking for firewood. I focused my binocular on them, and I was fortunate to observe one of the birds feedingfeeding the other. More observation revealed that, it was an adult feeding a young one. The younger one perched watching its mother diving in the air, manoeuvring to catch the insect. That was a hunting learning process for the young one. The mother brought the caught prey as the young one opened its beak to receive as its wings softly flap, not in flight but in appreciation (I thought).
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