Editing Bee-eater (section)

==Distribution and habitat==
[[File:Blue-bearded_bee-eater_in_Thailand.jpg|thumb|upright|The [[blue-bearded bee-eater]] is associated with forests, where it forages in edge habitats]]
The bee-eaters have an [[Old World]] distribution, occurring from Europe to Australia. The centre of diversity of the family is Africa, although a number of species also occur in Asia. Single species occur in each of Europe, (the [[European bee-eater]]), Australia (the [[rainbow bee-eater]]) and Madagascar (the [[olive bee-eater]], also found on mainland Africa). Of the three genera, ''Merops'', which has the majority of the species, occurs across the entirety of the family's distribution. ''Nyctyornis'' is restricted to Asia, ranging from India and southern China to the Indonesian islands of [[Sumatra]] and [[Borneo]]. The genus ''Meropogon'' has a single species restricted to [[Sulawesi]] in Indonesia.<ref name="hbwfamily" />

Bee-eaters are fairly indiscriminate in their choice of habitat. Their requirements are simply an elevated perch from which to watch for prey and a suitable ground substrate in which to dig their breeding burrow. Because their prey is entirely caught on the wing they are not dependent on any vegetation type. A single species, the blue-headed bee-eater, is found inside closed rainforest where it forages close to the ground in poor light in the gaps between large trees. Six other species are also closely associated with rainforest, but occur in edge habitat such as along rivers, in tree-fall gaps, off trees overhanging ravines or on emergent tree crowns above the main canopy.<ref name="hbwfamily" />

Species that breed in subtropical or temperate areas of Europe, Asia and Australia are all migratory. The European bee-eaters that breed in southern Europe and Asia migrate to [[West Africa|West]] and [[southern Africa]]. Another population of the same species breeds in South Africa and Namibia; these birds move northwards after breeding. In Australia the rainbow bee-eater is migratory in the southern areas of its range, migrating to Indonesia and New Guinea, but occurs year-round in northern Australia. Several species of bee-eater, are intra-African migrants;<ref name="hbwfamily" /> the white-throated bee-eater, for example, breeds on the southern edge of the [[Sahara]] and winters further south in equatorial [[rainforest]].<ref name="hbwwtbe" /> The most unusual migration is that of the [[southern carmine bee-eater]], which has a three-stage migration; after breeding in a band between Angola and Mozambique it moves south to Botswana, Namibia and South Africa before moving north to its main wintering grounds in northern Angola, Congo and Tanzania.<ref name="carmine migration" />