Unlimited edition. 18 x 24 inch, museum-quality poster on matte paper.

Ladies and gentleman, we introduce to you our color band champ (to date)! 🏆 Of course, it’s not the number of color bands in your color column that matters; it’s the pleasing combination – the quality of the palette – that makes folks swoon. Still, the female rainbow bee-eater must be recognized as our current color band champ. Her column includes 20 different colors. 😵‍💫 That tops both the male Gouldian finch (17) and the mourning dove (19). I guess the “rainbow” part of the common name applies! 🌈

So, too, does the other part of the common name, “bee-eater.” 🐝 Surveys of rainbow bee-eater pellet samples show that bees and wasps make up the bulk of the bird’s diet, with beetles, flies, moths/butterflies, and dragonflies/damselflies also in the mix. All of these insects are generally captured on the wing, with the bird sallying (a short, flying foray) out from its perch on a tree or telephone wire to grab insects in mid-air. This colorful scourge of Hymenoptera is abundant in Australia and New Guinea, and is considered a species of little conservation concern.

I don’t plan to make a color column for the male, as the sexes are very similar. The male has longer tail streamers than the female, which would only slightly increase the percentage of darks in the column.

Note: These archival poster prints feature rich, appealing colors. I encourage customers to take care in handling them until they are framed/protected for display; the darker colors on the matte paper can be scratched. They ship rolled, so customers need to flatten them before framing (or have their framer do so).

Charitable Sales Model: Whenever one of these poster prints is purchased, a charitable contribution equal to 10% of the print’s cost (or $3.60) is made to a nonprofit working to tackle environmental or social challenges. Read more about my charitable sales model here.