Bee-eaters

Bee-eaters are very common and one can easily spot them on telephone and electricity cables in most parts of the country. They favor open grassland and lightly wooded regions, which have insects and bees in abundance.  They are extremely agile flyers and have a graceful and undulating flight, often gliding on their wings. Sitting on high branches or wires,  they fly out to snatch insects in mid-flight and return to their perches to consume them.

In the evenings, they can be observed in large flocks, with their noisy calls, a trilly treet, treeet…., before retiring for the night in groups comprising of eight-ten birds. Since they are noisy and in large flocks, most of us would be familiar with them.

There are 2 sub-species which are commonly observed in suburban region, the Small Green Bee-eater and the Blue-tailed Bee-eater. 
The small green bee-eater is a small bird about the size of the house sparrow, but slimmer, with grass-green body and wings, long slender beak and reddish-brown head and upper neck parts. Another distinct feature is a black band running across its throat. Its tail has an extended central pair of feathers, which gives it an appearance of being quite long in size.(See picture 2 & 3 top).

The blue-tailed bee-eater is larger in size and has a reddish-brown throat and blue rump and tail portions, which distinguishes it from the smaller green bee-eater. (See picture 1 & 3 bottom).

More photographs here: https://picasaweb.google.com/108221666944016063659/WonderfulWorldOfBirds