How does the beautiful blue-throated bee tiger court?

(This article is from the September 2015 issue of "Knowledge is Power" magazine "Three Primary Colors Fighter - Blue-throated Bee Tiger", author: Zhou Quan)

After the courtship and pairing period, the blue-throated bee tiger began to burrow in the sand in pairs - making a nest to lay eggs. Since the nests of blue-throated hummingbirds are mostly caves and have only one exit, in order to prevent predators from blocking the opening of the hole and endangering life, the bee tiger will generally take turns to incubate eggs, one in the tall trees around the nest, and the other incubating birds in the hole. In the event of an emergency, the bee tiger that is sent out of the tree will emit a rapid warning sound, and the spouse will fly out of the sand hole to protect himself.

A blue-throated bee tiger ready to feed the chicks

In mid-July, the baby hummingbirds break out of their shells, and during the period of rapid growth and development, the demand for food is particularly large, and the adult birds will constantly catch various insects to feed. From August to September, it is the period when the young blue-throated hummingbirds gradually develop and fly, and the amount of food for the young birds at this time increases, the daily predation of adult hummingbirds also increases significantly, the size of the captured insects is gradually increased, and the difficulty of predation is correspondingly increased. Due to continuous labor, the color of adult bee tigers has become much less than the color of the courtship period, and the red and green feathers have gradually become dull. The predation of the blue-throated bee tiger is very interesting, if it catches a slightly larger insect such as the spring dragonfly, it will quickly fly above the dragonfly, use its long, pointed beak to break the dragonfly's wings, and when the dragonfly falls, it will dive and fly to "catch" the dragonfly's body, and then fly away.

Under the hard work of adult birds, when the birds grow up, the big birds will deliberately put food at the mouth of the cave, or even place it outside the mouth of the cave to lure the young birds out of the cave to contact the sun. When the wings have grown, they will fly directly out of the cave, and without a moment's hesitation, they will fly to the nearby trees for a short rest, and then begin to migrate south with their parents, back to the equator.