Blue-cheeked Bee-eater
Merops persicus
LCLeast Concern
- Family
- Bee-eaters (Meropidae)
- Order
- Coraciiformes
Overview
The blue-cheeked bee-eater (Merops persicus) is a species of bee-eater that breeds in Northern Africa and the Middle East from eastern Turkey to Kazakhstan and India. It is generally strongly migratory, wintering in tropical Africa, although some populations are resident year-round in the Sahel. This species occurs as a rare vagrant north of its breeding range, with most vagrants occurring in Italy and Greece.
Summary from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Range and habitat
Countries
- Afghanistan
- Algeria
- Angola
- Armenia
- Austria
- Azerbaijan
- Bahrain
- Benin
- Botswana
- Burkina Faso
- Burundi
- Cameroon
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Côte d'Ivoire
- Cyprus
- Denmark
- Djibouti
- DR Congo
- Egypt
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Eswatini
- Ethiopia
- Gabon
- Gambia
- Germany
- Ghana
- Greece
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- India
- Iran
- Iraq
- Israel
- Italy
- Jordan
- Kazakhstan
- Kenya
- Kuwait
- Kyrgyzstan
- Liberia
- Libya
- Malawi
- Maldives
- Mali
- Mauritania
- Mayotte
- Morocco
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- Niger
- Nigeria
- Oman
- Pakistan
- Palestine
- Qatar
- Republic of the Congo
- Russia
- Rwanda
- Saudi Arabia
- Senegal
- Seychelles
- Sierra Leone
- Somalia
- South Africa
- South Sudan
- Spain
- Sudan
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Syria
- Tajikistan
- Tanzania
- Togo
- Tunisia
- Turkey
- Turkmenistan
- Uganda
- United Arab Emirates
- Uzbekistan
- Yemen
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
Sources and further reading
- Wikipedia: Blue-cheeked bee-eater
- eBird: sightings, maps and photos
- xeno-canto: sound recordings
- Birds of the World: full species account (subscription)
- BirdLife DataZone: status and threats
- IUCN Red List (threat status)
- AviList global checklist (taxonomy)
Last updated September 29, 2026.
