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Anthropogenic activities are among the primary drivers of global biodiversity decline. In conservation practice, monitoring population parameters and clarifying habitat requirements constitute fundamental prerequisites for developing effective strategies. Long‐term research addresses these needs through systematic population monitoring and comprehensive data analysis, establishing critical foundations for biodiversity preservation. This study presents a 15‐year dataset on Merops viridis—a nationally protected avian species in China—documenting spatial shifts in nest‐site selection driven by anthropogenic habitat modification and revealing a consistent annual population decline. Our results demonstrate that alterations in nesting habitat critically influence population dynamics, providing theoretical support for evidence‐based conservation strategies. We further discuss potential drivers of observed changes in nest‐site selection and population decline, advocating for the urgent establishment of large‐scale protected areas targeting sandy floodplands to safeguard this species. Our results indicate that alterations in the nesting site habitat have a crucial impact on population dynamics. This study offers valuable decision‐making foundations for the enhanced conservation of blue‐throated bee‐eaters.

The first breeding site of Blue-cheeked Bee-eater in Peninsular India was observed in the Andivillai saltpans of Kanniyakumari district, Tamil Nadu. We found a total of 28 breeding burrows distributed into three subsets in the stretch of 30 m. Among 28 nests, 16 were active and 12 were inactive/unused. The active nest-tunnels have a mean tunnel length of 1.53±0.53 m and nest-mouth diameter of 9.93±1.48 cm. While the females excavated tunnels and started brooding males were guarding the colony. The male very often fed the female brooding inside the nest till the hatchlings appeared, and later both parents were observed feeding their chicks during the day. The chicks were first observed peeping out of the tunnels on 22 August 2023. At the end of September few juvenile birds were seen flying along with the adults foraging in the open sky. The Blue-cheeked Bee-eater is considered a passage migrant and winter visitor to the northwestern part of India and vagrant in Southern India, but this study confirmed its breeding in Southern India. Additionally, the study provides baseline information on the breeding ecology of the species in India.

The Yellow-legged Hornet (Vespa velutina nigrithorax) (YLH) is an invasive insect that arrived in Europe in 2004 and is now spread across nine countries. It is a threat to the native entomofauna and harmful to beekeeping and agriculture, as it is a ravenous predator of the European Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) and other pollinating species. Its expansion has been unstoppable and all resources are needed to fight against it, including native vertebrate predators. Among these, the European Bee-eater (Merops apiaster) (EBE) is a potential one, but little is known about its predation on YLH. In a study carried out in Portugal, remains of YHL were detected in EBE nesting sites, which, to the best of our knowledge, is the first such report. This means that this bird could be one more agent in the biological control of this pest (although research on predation intensity is still needed), in conjunction with other natural predators and other strategies. In the Iberian Peninsula, both species are allopatric in vast regions, so the role of EBE may be more limited. However, in the rest of Europe, at a country or continent scale, the scenario may be different and sympatry may occur to a greater extent.

Re‐occupation of existing nesting burrows in the European bee‐eater Merops apiaster has only rarely – and if so mostly anecdotically – been documented in the literature record, although such behavior would substantially save time and energy. In this study, we quantify burrow re‐occupation in a German colony over a period of eleven years and identify ecological variables determining reuse probability. Of 179 recorded broods, 54% took place in a reused burrow and the overall probability that one of 75 individually recognized burrows would be reused in a given subsequent year was estimated as 26.4%. This indicates that between‐year burrow reuse is a common behavior in the study colony which contrasts with findings from studies in other colonies. Furthermore, burrow re‐occupation probability declined highly significantly with increasing age of the breeding wall. Statistical separation of within‐ and between‐burrow effects of the age of the breeding wall revealed that a decline in re‐occupation probability with individual burrow age was responsible for this and not a selective disappearance of burrows with high re‐occupation probability over time. Limited duty cycles of individual burrows may be caused by accumulating detritus or decreasing stability with increasing burrow age. Alternatively, burrow fidelity may presuppose pair fidelity which may also explain the observed restricted burrow reuse duty cycles. A consequent next step would be to extend our within‐colony approach to other colonies and compare the ecological circumstances under which bee‐eaters reuse breeding burrows. We analysed reuse of individual breeding burrows in a European bee‐eater colony founded in 2003 over a period of eleven years. 54% of 179 broods took place in reused burrows. The probability of reuse declined with the age of the breeding wall due to a decreasing reuse probability of individual burrows with age.

Food availability is generally considered to determine breeding site selection and therefore plays an important role in hypotheses explaining the evolution of colony formation. Hypotheses trying to explain why birds join a colony usually assume that food is not limited, whereas those explaining variation in colony size suggest that food is under constraint. In this study, we investigate the composition and amount of food items not eaten by the nestlings and found in nest burrows of colonially nesting European bee‐eaters (Merops apiaster). We aimed to determine whether this unconsumed food is an indicator of unlimited food supply, the result of mistakes during food transfer between parents and chicks or foraging selectivity of chicks. Therefore, we investigated the amount of dropped food for each nest in relation to reproductive performance and parameters reflecting parental quality. Our data suggest that parents carry more food to the nest than chicks can eat and, hence, food is not limited. This assumption is supported by the facts that there is a positive relationship between dropped food found in a nest and the number of fledglings, nestling age, and chick health condition and that the amount of dropped food is independent of colony size. There is variation in the amount of dropped food within colonies, suggesting that parent foraging efficiency may also be an important determinant. Pairs nesting in the center of a colony performed better than those nesting on the edge, which supports the assumption that quality differences between parents are important as well. However, dropped food cannot be used as an indicator of local food availability as (1) within‐colony variation in dropped food is larger than between colony variation and, (2) the average amount of dropped food is not related to colony size. Food is usually a costly resource resulting in fine‐tuned parent‐offspring food transfer. We found evidence, that food dropped not eaten by nestling bee‐eaters indicates unlimited food supply, a basic assumption of hypotheses explaining colony formation, which is problematic to proof, since it is usually impossible to correctly determine food availability.

Microsatellite loci are widely used in ecological and evolutionary studies to assess inbreeding, genetic parentage and population structure. Such loci are often optimised in multiplexes to allow for economical and efficient use. Here, we tested 11 microsatellite loci designed for use in European bee-eaters ( Merops apiaster ), along with 31 loci isolated in other species, for their utility in European bee-eaters sampled on Susak Island, Croatia. Of these 42 loci, 20 were polymorphic in 38 individuals. These polymorphic loci were further assessed in a sub-set of 23 adults, excluding close relatives, and exhibited between three and 13 alleles each. All loci were autosomal, as indicated by the presence of heterozygotes in both males and females. One of the polymorphic loci exhibited low heterozygosity, three loci deviated from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and three pairs of loci displayed linkage disequilibrium. The remaining selected eight cross-species loci and seven loci isolated in European bee-eaters were combined with two sex-typing markers and optimised in five multiplexes. A combination of 15 autosomal loci of varying degrees of polymorphism makes this multiplex set particularly suitable for both parentage and spatial genetic analyses. This multiplex set therefore provides a useful toolkit for studying kin selection and population genetics in the cooperatively breeding European bee-eater and, potentially, in other closely related species.

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.

Animals frequently host organisms on their surface which can be beneficial, have no effect or a negative effect on their host. Ectoparasites, by definition, are those which incur costs to their host, but these costs may vary. Examples of avian ectoparasites are chewing lice which feed exclusively on dead feather or skin material; therefore, costs to their bird hosts are generally considered small. Theoretically, many possible proximate effects exist, like loss of tissue or food, infected bites, transmission of microparasitic diseases or reduced body insulation due to loss of feathers, which may ultimately also have fitness consequences. Here, we experimentally examined a possible negative impact of 2 feather-eating louse species (Meropoecus meropis and Brueelia apiastri) on male and female European bee-eaters (Merops apiaster) by removing or increasing louse loads and comparing their impact to a control group (lice removed and immediately returned) after 1 month. A negative effect of chewing lice was found on body mass and sedimentation rate and to a lesser extent on haematocrit levels. Males and females lost more weight when bearing heavy louse loads, and were more susceptible to infestations as indicated by the higher sedimentation rate. Our results further suggest differences in sex-specific susceptibility.

In the Golyófogó Valley near Albertirsa natural erosion created near vertical walls in the loess deposited in the last glacial period, offering natural nesting sites for the European Bee-eater. Later the deeply cut coach roads, the pits of loess extraction and the construction works of the motorway nearby created further man-made banks. Hence by the 1970-ies a well-established colony bred here, but by the beginning of the 21 century, disturbance and the demise of vertical banks led to a serious reduction in the number of breeding pairs. The purchase of 5-hectare loess grassland plot and the adjacent loess bank, and later its reconstruction led to an unprecedented growth in the number of Bee-eaters. From 2010 the number of breeding pairs exceeded 200 every year. Not only the Bee-eater colony, but also the natural vegetation and the botanical values of the area are managed to maintain the population of rare and protected element of the local flora and fauna. Az albertirsai Golyófogó-völgyben a jégkorszakban felhalmozódott löszbe vájt eróziós völgy falai régóta természetes fészkelési lehetőséget biztosítanak a gyurgyalagnak. A falu határában a vályogkészítéshez használt lösz kitermelése után maradt gödrök falai, a bevágódott mélyutak, majd később az autóút építkezés révén további ember alkotta fészkelőhelyek jöttek létre. Ennek köszönhetően az 1970-es évekre a partfalban költő kolónia létszáma megnőtt, de a 21. század elejére a zavarásnak, illetve a falak leomlásának köszönhetően a gyurgyalagok száma alaposan megcsappant. A Golyófogó-völgyben egy öthektáros löszgyep és a hozzátartozó partfal megvásárlása, majd 2009-es rekonstrukciója után a költő párok száma 2010-től 200 pár fölé emelkedett. A gyurgyalag kolónia mellett a terület botanikai értékeinek és természetes növénytársulásainak megőrzésére is törekednek a természetvédők, hogy ezzel biztosítsák a helyi állat- és növényvilág ritka és értékes elemeinek megőrzését

The blue‐tailed bee‐eater (Merops philippinus) is a summer migrant that breeds on Kinmen Island, located off the west coast of Taiwan, about 5 km from the southern coast of mainland China. The aim of this study was to investigate why blue‐tailed bee‐eaters build their nests in sandy loam and sandy clay loam, but not in clay loam. Soil chemical and physical properties, and mineralogical composition were measured for the different soil types. Clay loam had a significantly lower pH, Na, and base saturation than did sandy loam or sandy clay loam. Clay loam had a significantly higher N, cation‐exchange capacity (CEC), K, and free iron (Fed) and aluminum oxide (Ald) contents than the other soil types. Clay loam had significantly lower sand and higher clay content, and higher bulk density and penetration resistance than the other soil types. The correlation coefficients (r 2) between penetration resistance and Fed, Ald, and clay contents were 0.997, 0.848, and 0.779, respectively. Soil strength and compaction are important criteria for bee‐eaters’ nesting‐site selection. The lower pH of clay loam would enhance the exchangeable Al and acidity, further increasing the soil aggregation. Thus, it might prevent the bee‐eaters from excavating nesting burrows.