30. European Bee-eater The European (or Eurasian) Bee-eater is quite a bit larger than its African cousin, the Cinnamon-breasted, and a foreign visitor. For me, the sound of the large flocks of these community-minded birds, constantly calling to each other – prrup prrupp – to keep in touch as they fly overhead, is an unmistakable sign that the summer has come. Summer rains prompt huge quantities of insects to come out of holes in the ground and fly in swarms: bees, too, I guess become more active when it warms up. That’s what these seasoned globe-trotters, and many others like them, come for every year: they’re on the move southwards from Europe to Africa south of the Sahara during September and November, and northwards back again from March to May. They are, in the months between, very widely-spread in sub-Saharan Africa. Birds of AFRICAMA House 65