Despite its English common name, the Madagascar Bee-eater occurs across Africa and Asia. The nominate subspecies found on Madagascar and nearby islands is mainly olive green.
The nominate subspecies on Madagascar, the Comoros and Mayotte is mainly olive green, with a darker brownish cap. A black eye stripe is bordered by pale eyebrows and chin, and the throat is light rufous.
It is insectivorous and often launches from a perch to catch prey in flight. It generally nests in colonies, digging burrows into banks or other vertical slopes.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.