Black Bee-eater

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Black Bee-eater
Conservation status
Least Concern
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Coraciiformes Family: Meropidae Genus: Merops Species: M. gularis
Binomial name
Merops gularis Shaw, 1798

The Black Bee-eater (Merops gularis) is a species of bird in the Meropidae family.

Contents 1 Description 2 Distribution 3 Subspecies 4 References

[edit] Description

Black with scarlet chin and throat, streaked breast, pale blue eyebrow, belly, undertail-coverts and rump, rufous primaries.

[edit] Distribution

It is found in Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Togo, and Uganda.

[edit] Subspecies

There are two subspecies

• M.g.gularis - From Sierra Leone to southeast Nigeria - With the forehead blue, and a distinct bright cobalt-blue superciliary stripe. Some southeast Nigerian and west Cameroon birds are intermediate between this and M.g.australis
• M.g.australis - From southeast Nigeria to northeast Democratic Republic of the Congo, south to north Angola. - No superciliary stripe; forehead black, sometimes with a few blue feathers; the light azure-blue streaks on breat and even the belly are sometimes scarlet-tipped. Wing 5mm longer than the nominate subspecies.

[edit] References

• Fry, Fry and Harris, Kingfishers, Bee-eaters and Rollers (1992) ISBN 0-7136-1410-8
• BirdLife International 2004. Merops gularis. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 24 July 2007.