Rhinopomastus cyanomelas
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
The common scimitarbill (Rhinopomastus cyanomelas) is a species of bird in the family Phoeniculidae. It is found in Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Adults weigh roughly 35 grams and 26 cm in length. As adults, their beaks are black but as juveniles, their beaks are grey. Females and juveniles are more brown on the front of their body. They feed almost entirely on insects behind the bark of a tree, which is the reason for their probing beak.
(Scimitarbilled woodhoopoe=) Common scimitarbill – Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds. Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Johannesburg | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Common Scimitarbill sighting in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park on a given day, based on 81 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 48th most-seen of the 122 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March and November
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Common Scimitarbill in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park on a given day, against about 10% in April, June and August, the lowest months. May has too few records to rate.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Common Scimitarbill sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
6th of 35
Of the 35 parks where we can rate Common Scimitarbill sightings, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park ranks 6th at about 20%. The best odds are in uMkhuze Game Reserve (South Africa, about 40%), Gonarezhou National Park (Zimbabwe, about 40%) and Liwonde National Park (Malawi, about 20%).
Same order: Bucerotiformes
The closest relatives of the Common Scimitarbill that you can see in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (order Bucerotiformes, Hornbills and Hoopoes) are Common Hoopoe (about 20%), African Hoopoe (about 20%) and Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Common Scimitarbill is recorded against all the birds logged in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (81 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.
