Blue-tailed Bee-eater

How to identify

Field marks

1. Rump and tail bright blue
2. Chin bright yellow; throat chestnut
3. Black eyestripe; narrow blue patches on sides of face
4. Bill black, slender, and slightly curved; central tail feathers elongated

Male, female and young

Sexes similar in appearance; male is slightly larger, with longer ornamental tail feathers; juvenile has a weaker metallic gloss and shorter central tail feathers.

Voice

A metallic trill given twice, or a rapid call given three times.

Similar species

Blue-cheeked Bee-eater

Blue-cheeked Bee-eater usually occurs in drier places and has a green-black rump and tail; Blue-tailed Bee-eater has a blue rump and tail.

European Bee-eater

European Bee-eater has a yellow throat and a black breast-band; Blue-tailed Bee-eater has a chestnut throat.

Where and when it's recorded

Blue-tailed Bee-eater has been recorded at 843 of the 8,171 birding hotspots we track, in 19 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

1. Changaram Wetlands – EzhupunnaIndia2,056 records
2. KattampallyIndia1,832 records
3. Madayi ParaIndia1,501 records

Countries and regions with the most records

IndiaThailandSingaporeSri LankaCambodiaChinaMalaysiaPhilippines

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The blue-tailed bee-eater (Merops philippinus) is a bee-eater species mostly seen in open habitats close to water. It is widely distributed across South and Southeast Asia where many populations are strongly migratory, and seen seasonally in many parts but breeding colonially in small areas across their range, mostly in river valleys, where they nest by tunneling into loamy sand banks.

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

Questions