Merops (bird)

Merops
	Six common African Merops bee-eaters
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Coraciiformes
Family:	Meropidae
Genus:	Merops; Linnaeus, 1758
Type species
	Merops apiaster; Linnaeus, 1758
Species
	see text

Merops is a large genus of bee-eaters, a group of birds in the family Meropidae, native to Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe. The members of this family are characterised by richly coloured plumage, slender bodies and usually elongated central tail feathers. They predominantly eat insects, especially bees, wasps and hornets, which are caught in the air.

All bee-eaters are in the genus Merops and subfamily Meropinae except for three Asiatic bearded bee-eaters in the subfamily Nyctyornithinae (in genera Nyctyornis and Meropogon). The genus Merops was introduced by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae.^[1] The type species is the European bee-eater.^[2] The genus name is Ancient Greek for "bee-eater".^[3]

Taxonomy and systematics

Twenty-eight species are recognized:^[4]

Merops boehmi

	Merops muelleri

	Merops m. mentalis

	Merops gularis

	M. g. australis

	Merops oreobates

	Merops hirundineus

	Merops pusillus

	M. p. meridionalis

Merops variegatus

	Merops ornatus

	Merops apiaster

	Merops persicus

	Merops superciliosus

Merops philippinus

	Merops viridis

	Merops leschenaulti

	Merops bulocki

	Merops bullockoides

Meropogon

Nyctyornis

Bayesian consensus phylogeny based on nuclear and mitochondrial sequences of Meropidae (missing only Nyctyornis athertoni and M. revoilii)^[5]

Common name	Scientific name	Distribution
Black-headed bee-eater	Merops breweri	Angola, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Sudan.
Blue-headed bee-eater	Merops muelleri	Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Kenya
Blue-moustached bee-eater	Merops mentalis	Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.
Black bee-eater	Merops gularis	African tropical rainforest
Swallow-tailed bee-eater	Merops hirundineus	sub-Saharan Africa
Little bee-eater	Merops pusillus	Sub-Saharan Africa
Blue-breasted bee-eater	Merops variegatus	Angola, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria and Cameroon
Ethiopian bee-eater	Merops lafresnayii	Eritrea; Ethiopia; South Sudan; Sudan
Cinnamon-chested bee-eater	Merops oreobates	Albertine Rift montane forests and East African montane forests
Red-throated bee-eater	Merops bulocki	Sudan (region)
White-fronted bee-eater	Merops bullockoides	sub-equatorial Africa.
Somali bee-eater	Merops revoilii	Ethiopia, through Somalia to northern and eastern Kenya
White-throated bee-eater	Merops albicollis	southern Senegal to Uganda.
Böhm's bee-eater	Merops boehmi	Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zambia.
African green bee-eater^[6]	Merops viridissimus	sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal and the Gambia to Ethiopia; the Nile Valley
Arabian green bee-eater^[6]	Merops cyanophrys	Arabian Peninsula and the Levant
Asian green bee-eater^[6]	Merops orientalis	Asia from coastal southern Iran east through the Indian subcontinent to Vietnam
Blue-cheeked bee-eater	Merops persicus	Northern Africa, and the Middle East from eastern Turkey to Kazakhstan and India
Olive bee-eater	Merops superciliosus	Angola; Botswana; Burundi; Comoros; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Djibouti; Eritrea; Ethiopia; Kenya; Madagascar; Malawi; Mayotte; Mozambique; Namibia; Rwanda; Somalia; South Sudan; Sudan; Tanzania; Uganda; Zambia; Zimbabwe
Blue-tailed bee-eater	Merops philippinus	southeastern Asia.
Rainbow bee-eater	Merops ornatus	Australia, New Guinea, and some of the southern islands of Indonesia.
Blue-throated bee-eater	Merops viridis	south-east Asia
Rufous-crowned bee-eater	Merops americanus	the Philippines
Chestnut-headed bee-eater	Merops leschenaulti	India east to Southeast Asia.
European bee-eater	Merops apiaster	southern Europe and in parts of north Africa and western Asia.
Rosy bee-eater	Merops malimbicus	Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo.
Northern carmine bee-eater	Merops nubicus	Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo and Uganda.
Southern carmine bee-eater	Merops nubicoides	KwaZulu-Natal and Namibia to Gabon, the eastern DRCongo and Kenya.

Former species

Formerly, some authorities also considered the following species (or subspecies) as species within the genus Merops:

Magpie-lark (as Merops picatus)

References

^ Linnaeus, Carl (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1 (10th ed.). Holmiae:Laurentii Salvii. p. 117.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
^ Peters, James Lee, ed. (1945). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 5. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 233.
^ Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 251. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
^ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (August 2022). "Todies, motmots, bee-eaters". World Bird List Version 12.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
^ Marks, Ben D.; Weckstein, Jason D.; Moyle, Robert G. (2007). "Molecular phylogenetics of the bee-eaters (Aves: Meropidae) based on nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequence data". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 45 (1): 23–32. Bibcode:2007MolPE..45...23M. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2007.07.004. PMID 17716922.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Species Updates – IOC World Bird List". Retrieved 2021-06-18.

[1] Linnaeus, Carl (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1 (10th ed.). Holmiae:Laurentii Salvii. p. 117.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)

[2] Peters, James Lee, ed. (1945). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 5. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 233.

[job-3] Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 251. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.

[ioc-4] Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (August 2022). "Todies, motmots, bee-eaters". World Bird List Version 12.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 2 January 2023.

[5] Marks, Ben D.; Weckstein, Jason D.; Moyle, Robert G. (2007). "Molecular phylogenetics of the bee-eaters (Aves: Meropidae) based on nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequence data". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 45 (1): 23–32. Bibcode:2007MolPE..45...23M. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2007.07.004. PMID 17716922.

[:0-6] "Species Updates – IOC World Bird List". Retrieved 2021-06-18.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

Merops (bird)

Taxonomy and systematics

Former species

References

Portal di Ensiklopedia Dunia