Swallow-tailed Bee-eater (Merops hirundineus)

Family
Meropidae (Bee-eaters)

Size
20 - 22 cm

First Described (Guide)
Lichtenstein, 1793

Habitat
Dry savanna. Also, subtropical and tropical lowland dry grassland, dry and moist shrubland, dry forest.

Range (Guide)

Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], C�te dIvoire, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-bissau, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania [United Republic of], Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Vagrant to Kenya, Liberia, Mauritania, Rwanda.

Rarity Status
Currently this species is not classified as a rarity in this country OR information has not been updated.

Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).

Status LC
For more information see BirdLife International Species Factsheet.

Food
Insects, especially bees, wasps, hornets, which are caught in the air by sorties from an open perch.

Voice
Xeno-Canto Sound Files (more (15)...)

Swallow-tailed Bee-eater (Merops hirundineus) [XC339275]
by Lynette Rudman from North of Chiengi, Luapula province, Zambia (song)

Swallow-tailed Bee-eater (Merops hirundineus) [XC252815]
by Peter Boesman from Port Alfred, Western District, Eastern Cape, South Africa (song)

Nest
In a chamber at the end of a tunnel in a sandy bank. In small colonies.

Eggs (Guide)
Clutch Size: 2 - 4
Color: white
Dimensions: (spherical)

Subspecies
Has been placed in monotypic genus Dicrocercus on account of its tail shape. However, this appears to be merely an exaggeration of the incipiently fish-tailed shape shown by Little Bee-eater (Merops pusillus), Blue-breasted Bee-eater (Merops variegatus) and Cinnamon-chested Bee-eater (Merops oreobates), to which all other morphological and biological characters indicate present species to be closely allied.

The following 4 subspecies are recognised:

chrysolaimus Jardine & Selby, 1830 - Senegal east to northern Central African Republic.
heuglini (Neumann, 1906) - North-eastern Zaire, northern Uganda, southern Sudan and south-western Ethiopia.
furcatus Stanley, 1814 - Southern Zaire, northern Tanzania and south-eastern Kenya south to central Angola and Mozambique.
hirundineus Lichtenstein, 1793 - Southern Angola, south-western Zambia and western Zimbabwe south to southern South Africa (Cape Province).

References
See References.

Files:

JPG files for Swallow-tailed Bee-eater (Merops hirundineus) - 10 files

More Information

BirdLife International

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BirdLife International Species Factsheet.

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