The Blue-bearded Bee-eater (Nyctyornis athertoni), one of the largest species of the bee-eater family, is found over much of the Indian subcontinent and parts of Southeast Asia. The wooded forests of the Western Ghats make for excellent habitats to observe and photograph the bird.

I was on a bridge over River Kali near Ganeshgudi in search of hornbills, as I wanted to photograph them in beautiful morning light. There was no hornbill activity, but a Blue-bearded Bee-eater caught my attention. The bird was making frequent trips to a spot under the bridge and returning to the same perch on a tree nearby. I photographed the bird in-flight, and shooting with a handheld 500mm lens while focusing on such a swift flier was not an easy task! That’s when I noticed that there was a bee hive under the bridge. On one such trip to the hive, a swarm of bees suddenly launched an attack on the bird. Blue-bearded Bee-eaters are known to provoke hives on purpose so that bees fly out and they can then feed on the insects mid-air.

The image won a Special Mention in the Animal Behaviour category in the Nature inFocus Photography Contest, 2021.