Madagascar Bee-eater

Merops superciliosus

Other Names

  Olive Bee-eater, Malagasy Bee-eater, Brown-breasted Bee-eater   Guêpier de Madagascar   Madagaskarspint   Abejaruco Malgache   Grön biätare   Groene Bijeneter   Gruccione egiziano

World: Africa: 1 subspecies alternans found in W Angola and NW Namibia, the other superciliosus is found in the E in Madagascar, the Comoro Islands, E Ethiopia, E Kenya, Somalia, NE Tanzania and S Mozambique (sometimes wanders to NW Zimbabwe.

Kenya: SE Lowlands and the Lake Victoria basin and along the coast.

This is a fairly common non-breeding migrant (May-September) throughout most of its range in Kenya. Although in the E and along the coast it occurs erratically throughout the year (in November through March these may be birds travelling to or from their Somali breeding grounds. There are breeding records from Meru NP. The Madagascar Bee-eater has similar habits to and indeed replaces the Blue-cheeked Bee-eater across much of its range. At Lake Baringo (where the bird pictured above was photographed in August 2001) the 2 birds are both common but at different times of the year with the species rarely overlapping (the Madagascar Bee-eaters vacate the area in September and then the Blue-cheeked move in during October).