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 Vasai-Virar on a given day, based on 128 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 89th most-seen of the 217 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.
October
In that month about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Blue-cheeked Bee-eater in Vasai-Virar on a given day, against under 5% in December to September, the lowest months. That is one of Vasai-Virar's driest months, with about 90 mm of rain against 840 mm in July.
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.
5th of 25
Of the 25 cities where we can rate Blue-cheeked Bee-eater sightings, Vasai-Virar ranks 5th at about 10%. The best odds are in Zanzibar City (Tanzania, about 40%), Serrekunda (Gambia, about 20%) and Freetown (Sierra Leone, about 20%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Blue-cheeked Bee-eater is recorded against all the birds logged in Vasai-Virar (128 verified sightings), 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.
