Rhinopomastus cyanomelas
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
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 |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Common Scimitarbill sighting in uMkhuze Game Reserve on a given day, based on 217 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 58th most-seen of the 283 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.
April
In that month about 60% of wildlife watchers report a Common Scimitarbill in uMkhuze Game Reserve on a given day, against about 20% in September, the lowest month.
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.
Yes
Of the 35 parks where we can rate Common Scimitarbill sightings, uMkhuze Game Reserve has the highest daily chance: about 40%. Next come 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 uMkhuze Game Reserve (217 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.
