Diurnal-activity Patterns of the Small Bee-eater (Merops orientalis) in Southern India
The diurnal time-activity patterns of the Small Bee-eater (Merops orientalis) were studied between 2005 and 2006 in the Nagapattinam District of Southern India. Bee-eaters were observed to spend an average of 52.5% of their day time scanning, 21.3% feeding, 13.3% flying, 8.8% resting and 4.1% engagi...
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Published in | Tropical life sciences research Vol. 26; no. 1; pp. 9 - 20 |
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Main Authors | , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Malaysia
Universiti Sains Malaysia Press
01.04.2015
Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | The diurnal time-activity patterns of the Small Bee-eater (Merops orientalis) were studied between 2005 and 2006 in the Nagapattinam District of Southern India. Bee-eaters were observed to spend an average of 52.5% of their day time scanning, 21.3% feeding, 13.3% flying, 8.8% resting and 4.1% engaging in preening activities. The time spent on scanning varied among seasons in 2005 (p<0.05) and among time blocks (p<0.05), but it did not vary among years or habitats (p>0.05). The feeding patterns differed among years, seasons within years, time blocks and habitats (p<0.05). The flying habits varied among years, time blocks and habitats (p<0.05) but did not change between seasons within years (p>0.05). The resting habits differed among years and habitats (p<0.05) but did not differ among seasons within years or time blocks (p>0.05). Preening differed among years and time blocks (p<0.05) but did not vary among seasons within years or habitats (p>0.05). We conclude that several factors, such as food availability, environmental factors and predation threats, may affect the diurnal activity patterns of Bee-eaters between habitats and seasons; a further study could clarify this conclusion. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 1985-3718 2180-4249 |