It must be a Bee-eater, but Porter et al., Field Guide to the Birds of the
Middle East, shows that two species occur in Iraq. The most widespread
seems to be the Blue-cheeked, M. superciliosus, but if your dad is in the
northern part of Iraq, roughly north, or to some extent east, of Baghdad, it
could be the European, M. apiaster. The question to ask him is whether the
bird is largely uniform green except for light blue above and below the eye
(they all have a black eyestripe), making it Blue-cheeked, or whether it has
brown in the wing and a brownish cap (still with a little blue on the head),
making it European. Also, I see that in flight the Blue-cheeked shows a
uniformly green body with light-rufous wing linings, while the European
shows uniformly light blue breast and belly, and wings with light blue
primaries and much rufous in the secondaries and coverts. Since your dad
mentions only the bright green, I'd bet on the Blue-cheeked.

Burt Guttman guttmanb at evergreen.edu
The Evergreen State College
Olympia, WA 98505 360-456-8447
Home: 7334 Holmes Island Road S.E., Olympia 98503

-----Original Message-----
From: Timothy Ryan [mailto:famryan2000 at yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2003 11:41 AM
To: Tweeters
Subject: Bird ID question


My dad, who isn't a bird watcher, is currently in Iraq. He reported to me a
bird he's been seeing around his camp. I was wondering if any of you know
what it is or a site I could go to to find out. This is how he described
it: I keep seeing this very
bright green bird, shaped somewhat like a swallow, kind of darts around like

a swallow, it has a long skinny, pointy beak.
Thanks.

Tim Ryan
famryan2000 at yahoo.com <mailto:famryan2000 at yahoo.com>
Dupont, WA



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