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We investigated the interaction between raiding blue-bearded bee eaters (Nyctyornis athertoni) andcounter-attacking bees in an aggregation of 50 giant honeybee (Apis dorsata) colonies on a bee treein Assam, India. We filmed two scenarios with an Arriflex camera at 150 frames per second: first, the beeeater passed parallel to a nest, threatening only the sunny side of the colony, and second, the birdpassed a nest laterally in a perpendicular direction, eliciting release of a great number of guard beesfrom both sides of the colony. In the first scenario, we assessed more than 700 bees in the mass release,comprising 2-3 per cent of colony members. We found the first evidence for intercolonial group defence inApis dorsata, which means that colonies or parts of them, which were not directly threatened, joinedthe defence action of the threatened colony. We discuss how unthreatened nests or parts of them can bechallenged for mass release of guard bees.