European Bee-eater

How to identify

Field marks

1. Throat yellow, with a black bar below
2. Black eyestripe; crown to nape chestnut
3. Back golden-yellow; belly blue-green
4. Tail blue-green; central tail feathers elongated in breeding plumage

Male, female and young

Sexes similar; female scapulars are often greener rather than golden-yellow; juvenile is duller.

Voice

Melodious, flowing, loud “pruuk-pruuk” or “prruip-prruip”; often heard before it is seen.

Similar species

Blue-cheeked Bee-eater

Calls are similar and difficult to distinguish; where African bee-eaters are numerous, European Bee-eater can be identified by its chestnut crown and golden-yellow throat.

Where and when it's recorded

Busiest months: May · Most records: Spain, Israel, Portugal

European Bee-eater has been recorded at 1,323 of the 8,276 birding hotspots we track, in 108 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

1. International Birding and Research Center Eilat (IBRCE)Israel1,780 records
2. Aras Kuş Halkalama İstasyonuTürkiye1,485 records
3. Desembocadura del Guadalhorce – ÁreaSpain1,371 records

Countries and regions with the most records

SpainIsraelPortugalSouth AfricaGreeceTürkiyeKenyaBulgaria

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 European bee-eater (Merops apiaster) is a bird species in the bee-eater family, Meropidae. It has the largest range of any bee-eater species, breeding in southern and central Europe, northern and southern Africa, and western Asia. Except for the resident southern African population, the species is strongly migratory, wintering in tropical Africa.

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

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