Love birds cozily settle in Leizhou Peninsula

Beautiful bee-eating birds appear in pairs in Leizhou Peninsula around Zhanjiang where they build nests and breed babies, drawing in flocks of photography enthusiasts.

Bee-eaters who prefer a diet of bees and also butterflies and dragonflies consist of 26 species in the family of Meropidae, and are mostly found in Africa, Asia, southern Europe and Australia.

The coastal city of Zhanjiang in South China's Guangdong province is found rare to have at least two types of the birds -- blue-tailed and blue-throated bee-eaters.

Every year, they come in March and April from southeastern Asia to find dry and ventilated river banks or sand walls for nesting and breeding and over winter back or in further south places in September.

Bee-eaters are held in great affection for their colorful feathers, fine motions and their sub-human mate ship system. They represent love because of being monogamous during a nesting season. They stay together for multiple years, hatching, breeding, and even taking care of their neighboring baby birds, who are favored study objects for social scientists.

Sanling Mountain National Forest Park, Huguangyan scenic spot, and Donghai Island have become the hottest sites to capture snapshots.

The sand lands along the Leizhou coast are important breeding grounds for bee-eaters, according to Zhanjiang's birds-loving association, who made an appeal to set up preserves to protect them.

Male bee-eaters help build nests on sand walls and then guard their families, and breed their babies. [Photo by Xu Chengwen/yinsha.com]

A male bee-eater catches insects for his spouse. [Photo by Xu Chengwen/yinsha.com]

Two bee-eaters play on the branches of Leizhou, while expecting two more months of rest during the nesting time in Zhanjiang. [Photo by Xu Chengwen/yinsha.com]