Merops revoilii
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
The Somali bee-eater (Merops revoilii) is a species of bird in the family Meropidae. It is found in Ethiopia, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Tanzania. This is a small bee-eater that prefers arid country and desert areas where it may be locally common. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being of "least concern", postulating that clearing of woodland and forest is creating new suitable habitat for the bird and that its population trend may therefore be rising.
The Somali bee-eater grows to a length of 16 to 18 cm (6.3 to 7.1 in) and is the smallest member of the genus. The sexes are similar in appearance and are slender birds with spiky plumage on the head. The crown is glossy green and the eyebrow blue. The upper parts of the body are varying shades of green, the lower back and rump are bright blue and the tail is bluish-green. The cheeks, chin and throat are white, and the breast and belly cinnamon-buff. The beak is black, the eyes reddish-brown and the legs dark grey. This species lacks the dark trailing edges to the wings that many other members of the genus have.
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Kenya · 2024
© Peter Boesman · XC948275 · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tsavo East National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 2 | Samburu National Reserve | 🇰🇪 Kenya |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Somali Bee-eater sighting in Samburu National Reserve on a given day, based on 114 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 152nd most-seen of the 341 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.
April–July and September–February
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Somali Bee-eater in Samburu National Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in March and August, the lowest months.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Somali 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 2
Of the 2 parks where we can rate Somali Bee-eater sightings, Samburu National Reserve ranks 2nd at about 10%. The best odds are in Tsavo East National Park (Kenya, about 20%).
Same genus: Merops
The closest relatives of the Somali Bee-eater that you can see in Samburu National Reserve (genus Merops, Typical Bee-eaters) are Little Bee-eater (about 50%) and Whitethroated Bee-eater (about 50%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Somali Bee-eater is recorded against all the birds logged in Samburu National Reserve (114 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.
