Family Bee-eaters (Meropidae)
Least Concern
Black Bee-eater (Merops gularis)
Taxonomy
French: Guêpier noir German: Purpurspint Spanish: Abejaruco negro
Taxonomy:
Merops gularis
Shaw
, 1798,Sierra Leone
.
Subspecies and Distribution
M. g. gularis
Shaw, 1798 – Sierra Leone and SE Guinea E to SE Nigeria.
M. g. australis
(Reichenow, 1885) – SE Nigeria or W Cameroon through Congo Basin to W Uganda and N Angola.
Descriptive notes
20 cm; 25–34 g. Nominate race has black head with blue forehead and supercilium, and often a blue line below eye; scarlet throat feathers with basal part dark grey and... read more
Voice
Rather silent. Most common call is a high-pitched, strident “tsi!-lp” (bisyllabic on sonagram),... read more
Habitat
Edges of high forest next to cleared land, plantations, waterways and larger clearings in... read more
Food and feeding
Diet consists of airborne insects: hymenopterans including honeybees, other bees, wasps, and ants, also butterflies, dragonflies,... read more
Breeding
Feb–Mar in Sierra Leone; in Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon burrow excavated in or after Jan and eggs laid in Mar–May; in Zaire (... read more
Movements
Resident and partial migrant. Best evidence for migration comes from Mt Nimba, Liberia, where there... read more
Status and conservation
Not globally threatened (Least Concern). Common in E Sierra Leone, and frequent and widespread throughout most of range; fairly common in R Congo forests; common or numerous... read more
Formerly sometimes placed with M. muelleri (including mentalis) in genus Meropiscus. Has been placed with other small, rounded-winged species lacking tail-streamers in genus Melittophagus (see M. lafresnayii). Races intergrade in SE Nigeria. Two subspecies recognized.