Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/European bee eaters feeding

Voting period is over. Please don't add any new votes. Voting period ends on 9 Jan 2013 at 06:26:21 (UTC)

 
Original – A male European bee-eater feeds while his mate waits for an offering.
Reason
High-res, clear shot of a European bee-eater feeding (plus his friend). Great EV, unfortunately only just added to the article.
Articles in which this image appears
European bee-eater (under feeding)
FP category for this image
Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Animals/Birds
Creator
Pierre Dalous, Commons User Kookaburra 81
  • Something like "File:Pair of Merops apiaster feeding.jpg" or something of the likes. Merapi seems to have been derived from Mer-ops api-aster, but that's certainly not a scientific name. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 16:27, 31 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Done. Adam Cuerden (talk) 16:40, 31 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support Sharp and interesting, colourful (the old nom template is broken though) — Crisco 1492 (talk) 16:46, 31 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support Superb picture. It nicely shows how the neck gets deformed to catch hold of the prey. Great quality and high EV picture.BNK (talk) 02:28, 1 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support Excellent. The bee in mid air is pretty cool. Dusty777 01:50, 3 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comment. Hate to be a spoilsport, but there's something odd here. Can anyone explain why a bee (maybe it's a wasp) would be flying upside down? Hmmm, so quite likely it's staged, with the bird being fed with a dead insect, as it does look quite dead. And frankly what are the odds anyway - an insect just happening to fly along to be caught by a bird sitting on branch (together with its mate) while a photographer also happens to be there to take a photo. I guess this doesn't preclude its promotion but does considerably lessen the EV - the article for example states "bee-eaters predominantly eat insects...which are caught in the air by sorties from an open perch". Clearly not what's happening here, so not a demonstration of how it would feed in nature. An explanation would be nice. --jjron (talk) 15:52, 5 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comment.Hello. Some explanation. First, the file name Merapi: it is a code usually consisting of the first 3 letters of the genus followed by the first 3 letters of the species. This code is used when studying the population biology of birds.

- Yes the insect is dead. The Bee-eater is a bird that capture its prey in fly, and then settles on a perch. When there is on a wasp, he taps his prey on the branch to remove the sting ! Finally for swallow, he launches it into the air. In this photo, the male who has captured the prey will eventually offer it to the female beside him. Thank you ... sorry for my english.--Kookaburra 81, 5 January 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the explanation, Mr. Dalous. Your pictures are beautiful. ceranthor 21:46, 5 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Sounds a fair explanation. It would be nice to get a WP:Reliable source that would verify this and then prior to promotion this information should be added it to the feeding section of the article (and image page) to explain it for readers, and so that the article and image gel. Important also if it only applies to wasps. Good work otherwise. --jjron (talk) 12:02, 7 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Promoted File:Pair of Merops apiaster feeding.jpg --Armbrust The Homunculus 09:15, 9 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]