Determinants of between‐year burrow re‐occupation in a colony of the European bee‐eater Merops apiaster

What is it about?

One aspect of breeding behaviour of Merops apiaster regarding their breeding burrow creation or re-use. In the literature we usually read that a re-use of breeding burrows is an exception. We can demonstrate that a re-use of breeding burrows from previous years occurs in our study colony regularly.

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Why is it important?

Several times it is recommended for species conservation that their colony sites should be restored, because gravity slopes became riddled by nesting burrows after some year of use as a bee-eater breeding colony. The destruction of older breeding burrows and the recreation of the breeding wall may increase attractiveness for bee-eaters, but due to the fact that bee-eater also re-use older nesting burrows, a re-construction of the breeding wall is not necessarily requiered too often.