Rhinopomastus cyanomelas
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
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 Lake Mburo National Park on a given day, based on 182 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 96th most-seen of the 362 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Common Scimitarbill in Lake Mburo National Park on a given day, against about 10% in March–May, August, October and December–January, the lowest months. That is one of Lake Mburo National Park's driest months, with about 15 mm of rain against 110 mm in November.
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.
13th of 35
Of the 35 parks where we can rate Common Scimitarbill sightings, Lake Mburo National Park ranks 13th 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%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Common Scimitarbill is recorded against all the birds logged in Lake Mburo National Park (182 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.
