Merops nubicus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The northern carmine bee-eater (Merops nubicus) is a brightly-coloured bird in the bee-eater family, Meropidae. It is found across northern tropical Africa, from Senegal eastwards to Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya. It was formerly considered to be conspecific with the southern carmine bee-eater which has a carmine coloured throat rather than the blue throat of the northern species.
The northern carmine bee-eater was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the other bee-eaters in the genus Merops and coined the binomial name Merops nubicus. Gmelin based his description on "Le guépier rouge à tête bleu" or "Guépier de Nubie" that had been described and illustrated in 1779 by French polymath Comte de Buffon in his multi-volume book Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. Buffon had been provided with a picture drawn by the Scottish traveller and writer James Bruce who had visited Nubia in 1770–1771. It is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. The northern carmine bee-eater was formerly treated as conspecific with the southern carmine bee-eater (Merops nubicoides... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Awash National Park | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia | |
| 2 | Niokolo-Koba National Park | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 3 | Murchison Falls National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 4 | Tsavo East National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 5 | Mkomazi National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 6 | Mikumi National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 7 | Tsavo West National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 8 | Queen Elizabeth National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Disney's Animal Kingdom | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | San Diego Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Basel Zoo | 🇨🇭 Switzerland | |
| 4 | Zoorasia | 🇯🇵 Japan | |
| 5 | Walsrode World Bird Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 6 | Columbus Zoo and Aquarium | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Bronx Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Saint Louis Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Tierpark Hagenbeck | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 10 | Cologne Zoological Garden | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 11 | Bird Paradise | 🇸🇬 Singapore | |
| 12 | Rainforest Wild Asia | 🇸🇬 Singapore | |
| 13 | Kobe Animal Kingdom | 🇯🇵 Japan | |
| 14 | National Aviary | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 15 | Cologne Zoo Aquarium | 🇩🇪 Germany |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Northern Carmine Bee-eater sighting in Niokolo-Koba National Park on a given day, based on 194 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 43rd most-seen of the 215 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January and February
In those months about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Northern Carmine Bee-eater in Niokolo-Koba National Park on a given day, against about 30% in March and September, the lowest months. Those are among Niokolo-Koba National Park's driest months, with almost no rain against 300 mm in August. May–July and October have too few records to rate.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Northern Carmine Bee-eater sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 8
Of the 8 parks where we can rate Northern Carmine Bee-eater sightings, Niokolo-Koba National Park ranks 2nd at about 40%. The best odds are in Awash National Park (Ethiopia, about 60%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Merops
The closest relatives of the Northern Carmine Bee-eater that you can see in Niokolo-Koba National Park (genus Merops, Typical Bee-eaters) are Red-throated Bee-eater (about 90%) and Little Bee-eater (about 40%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Northern Carmine Bee-eater is recorded against all the birds logged in Niokolo-Koba National Park (194 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.
