Merops leschenaulti
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
The chestnut-headed bee-eater (Merops leschenaulti), or bay-headed bee-eater, is a bird in the bee-eater family Meropidae. It breeds on the Indian subcontinent and adjoining regions, ranging from India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka across Southeast Asia to Indonesia.
This species, like other bee-eaters, is a richly coloured, slender bird. It is predominantly green, with blue on the rump and lower belly. Its face and throat are yellow with a black eye stripe, and the crown and nape are rich chestnut. The thin curved bill is black. Sexes are alike, but young birds are duller. It is 18–20 cm long and lacks the two elongated central tail feathers possessed by most of its relatives.
The chestnut-headed bee-eater was formally described in 1817 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot under the current binomial name Merops leschenaulti. He specified the locality as Java. This was an error as this species does not occur there, and the locality has been designated as Sri Lanka. The specific epithet was chosen to honour the French naturalist and collector Jean-Baptiste Leschenault de La Tour who had brought Vieillot's specimen to France.
Three subspecies are recognised: M... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bali Barat National Park | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 2 | Royal Bardia National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 3 | Khao Yai National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 4 | Kaziranga National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Yala National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 6 | Wilpattu National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 7 | Periyar National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Chitwan National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 9 | Kaeng Krachan National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 10 | Royal Manas National Park | 🇧🇹 Bhutan | |
| 11 | Manas National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 12 | Udawalawe National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 13 | Jim Corbett National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 14 | Nagarhole National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 15 | Cat Tien National Park | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 16 | Bandipur National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 17 | Khao Sok National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 18 | Doi Inthanon National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 19 | Eravikulam National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 20 | Minneriya National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 21 | Mudumalai National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 22 | Sinharaja Forest Reserve | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thrissur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Dehradun | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Kozhikode | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Kathmandu | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 5 | Guwahati | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Thiruvananthapuram | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Denpasar | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 8 | Dhaka | 🇧🇩 Bangladesh | |
| 9 | Ponnani | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Coimbatore | 🇮🇳 India |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Chestnut-headed Bee-eater sighting in Bandipur National Park on a given day, based on 141 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 97th most-seen of the 256 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Chestnut-headed Bee-eater in Bandipur National Park on a given day, against under 5% in June, the lowest month.
Between 6 and 9 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Chestnut-headed Bee-eater sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
16th of 22
Of the 22 parks where we can rate Chestnut-headed Bee-eater sightings, Bandipur National Park ranks 16th at about 10%. The best odds are in Bali Barat National Park (Indonesia, about 50%), Royal Bardia National Park (Nepal, about 40%) and Khao Yai National Park (Thailand, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Merops
The closest relatives of the Chestnut-headed Bee-eater that you can see in Bandipur National Park (genus Merops, Typical Bee-eaters) are Asian Green Bee-eater (about 50%) and Blue-tailed Bee-eater (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Chestnut-headed Bee-eater is recorded against all the birds logged in Bandipur National Park (141 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
