Merops persicus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
The blue-cheeked bee-eater (Merops persicus) is a species of bee-eater that breeds in Northern Africa and the Middle East from eastern Turkey to Kazakhstan and India. It is generally strongly migratory, wintering in tropical Africa, although some populations are resident year-round in the Sahel. This species occurs as a rare vagrant north of its breeding range, with most vagrants occurring in Italy and Greece.
The genus name Merops is Ancient Greek for "bee-eater", and persicus is Latin for "Persian". Two subspecies of blue-cheeked bee-eater are accepted: Merops persicus persicus - Breeds in Asia, winters in East and Southern Africa.
Merops persicus chrysocercus - Breeds in North Africa, winters in West Africa. This species is closely related to the blue-tailed bee-eater, M. philippinus of East Asia, and the olive bee-eater of Africa, and has been treated as being the same species (conspecific).
This species, like other bee-eaters, is a richly coloured, slender bird. It is predominantly green; its face has blue sides with a black eye stripe, and a yellow and brown throat; the beak is black. It can reach a length of 31 cm (12 in), with... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zanzibar City | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 2 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia | |
| 3 | Freetown | 🇸🇱 Sierra Leone | |
| 4 | Cairo | 🇪🇬 Egypt | |
| 5 | Vasai-Virar | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Dar es-Salaam | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 7 | Luxor | 🇪🇬 Egypt | |
| 8 | Riyadh | 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia | |
| 9 | Kuwait City | 🇰🇼 Kuwait | |
| 10 | Monrovia | 🇱🇷 Liberia |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Blue-cheeked Bee-eater sighting in Chobe National Park on a given day, based on 149 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 124th most-seen of the 373 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February
In that month about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Blue-cheeked Bee-eater in Chobe National Park on a given day, against under 5% in May to October, the lowest months. That is one of Chobe National Park's wettest months, with about 120 mm of rain against almost none in May.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Blue-cheeked 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.
8th of 30
Of the 30 parks where we can rate Blue-cheeked Bee-eater sightings, Chobe National Park ranks 8th at about 10%. The best odds are in iSimangaliso Wetland Park (South Africa, about 30%), Tarangire National Park (Tanzania, about 20%) and uMkhuze Game Reserve (South Africa, about 20%).
Same genus: Merops
The closest relatives of the Blue-cheeked Bee-eater that you can see in Chobe National Park (genus Merops, Typical Bee-eaters) are Little Bee-eater (about 40%), Southern Carmine Bee-eater (about 20%) and White-fronted Bee-eater (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Blue-cheeked Bee-eater is recorded against all the birds logged in Chobe National Park (149 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.
