Blue-breasted bee-eater characteristics. It has a blue stripe over the black eye stripe, an orange-red iris, a white cheek and a bright yellow throat. Furthermore, like many members of the Meropidae family, they have a wide chest band. Its chest band is made up of two colours, a deep purple-blue gorget above a chestnut coloured breastband . Juveniles of the blue-breasted bee-eater have buff flanks and belly. They have a yellow-buff chin that leads to a light green mottled breast. Juveniles also completely lack a chest band. The little bee-eaters and the cinnamon-chested bee-eater are both very similar to the blue-breasted bee-eater.
Road signs in the United Kingdom patch may only be coloured blue or green. Signs indicating a temporary change, such as roadworks or route diversions, are denoted with a yellow background. Usually these signs use a simple black on yellow colour code, more complex signage use the conventional signs superimposed onto a yellow background. In some areas, such as the Dartmoor National Park, additional signs and colours are used to distinguish road conditions. In addition to the national colour schemes, the park also uses white signs with a light blue border and text to denote routes suitable for medium-sized vehicles and white signs with a brown