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Merops (bird)

Genus of birds

Summary

Genus of birds

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.

Taxonomy

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. The type species is the European bee-eater. The genus name is Ancient Greek for "bee-eater".

Taxonomy and systematics

Twenty-eight species are recognized:

ImageCommon nameScientific nameDistribution
[[File:Black-headed Bee-eater Merops breweri, Bili, Bas-Uele, Democratic Republic Congo 2.jpg175px]]Black-headed bee-eaterMerops breweriAngola, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Sudan.
[[File:Merops muelleri.jpg175px]]Blue-headed bee-eaterMerops muelleriCameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Kenya
[[File:Merops mentalis (cropped).jpg175px]]Blue-moustached bee-eaterMerops mentalisCameroon, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.
[[File:Black Bee-eater - Ghana S4E2547.jpg175px]]Black bee-eaterMerops gularisAfrican tropical rainforest
[[File:Swallow-tailed bee-eater (Merops hirundineus hirundineus).jpg175px]]Swallow-tailed bee-eaterMerops hirundineussub-Saharan Africa
[[File:Little bee-eater (Merops pusillus pusillus).jpg175px]]Little bee-eaterMerops pusillusSub-Saharan Africa
[[File:20160605 0253 Bangweulu Guepier a collier bleu (cropped).jpg175px]]Blue-breasted bee-eaterMerops variegatusAngola, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria and Cameroon
[[File:Ethiopian Bee-eater (cropped).jpgframeless178x178px]]Ethiopian bee-eaterMerops lafresnayiiEritrea; Ethiopia; South Sudan; Sudan
[[File:Cinnamon-chested bee-eater (Merops oreobates) 2.jpg175px]]Cinnamon-chested bee-eaterMerops oreobatesAlbertine Rift montane forests and East African montane forests
[[File:Merops bulocki frenatus.jpg175px]]Red-throated bee-eaterMerops bulockiSudan (region)
[[File:White-fronted bee-eater (Merops bullockoides) Namibia.jpg175px]]White-fronted bee-eaterMerops bullockoidessub-equatorial Africa.
[[File:Somali Bee-eater, Merops revoilii (cropped).jpg175px]]Somali bee-eaterMerops revoiliiEthiopia, through Somalia to northern and eastern Kenya
[[File:White-throated bee-eater (Merops albicollis) female.jpg175px]]White-throated bee-eaterMerops albicollissouthern Senegal to Uganda.
[[File:Boehm's Bee-eater - Malawi S4E2687 (22658131571).jpg175px]]Böhm's bee-eaterMerops boehmiDemocratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zambia.
[[File:Merops orientalis at Fayoum by Hatem Moushir 1.JPGframeless175x175px]]title=Species Updates – IOC World Bird Listurl=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/new/updates/species-updates/access-date=2021-06-18language=en-US}}Merops viridissimussub-Saharan Africa from Senegal and the Gambia to Ethiopia; the Nile Valley
[[File:Green bee-eater with a bee.jpgframeless263x263px]]Arabian green bee-eaterMerops cyanophrysArabian Peninsula and the Levant
[[File:Merops orientalis - Pak Thale.jpg175px]]Asian green bee-eaterMerops orientalisAsia from coastal southern Iran east through the Indian subcontinent to Vietnam
[[File:Blue-cheeked bee-eater (Merops persicus persicus) Namibia.jpg175px]]Blue-cheeked bee-eaterMerops persicusNorthern Africa, and the Middle East from eastern Turkey to Kazakhstan and India
[[File:Olive Bee-eater, Ambola, SW Madagascar.jpg175px]]Olive bee-eaterMerops superciliosusAngola; 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
[[File:Blue-tailed bee-eater (Merops philippinus).jpg175px]]Blue-tailed bee-eaterMerops philippinussoutheastern Asia.
[[File:Rainbow Bee-eater - Fogg Dam - Darwin S4E5258 (22308831836).jpg175px]]Rainbow bee-eaterMerops ornatusAustralia, New Guinea, and some of the southern islands of Indonesia.
[[File:Blue-throated bee-eater (Merops viridis).jpg175px]]Blue-throated bee-eaterMerops viridissouth-east Asia
[[File:Rufous-crowned Bee-eater Merops viridis americanus, Luzon, Philippines (15901095124).jpgframeless212x212px]]Rufous-crowned bee-eaterMerops americanusthe Philippines
[[File:Chestnut-headed bee-eater (Merops leschenaulti).jpg175px]]Chestnut-headed bee-eaterMerops leschenaultiIndia east to Southeast Asia.
[[File:Şahlûr.jpg175px]]European bee-eaterMerops apiastersouthern Europe and in parts of north Africa and western Asia.
[[File:Merops malimbicus (cropped).jpg175px]]Rosy bee-eaterMerops malimbicusAngola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo.
[[File:Merops nubicus 13zz.jpg175px]]Northern carmine bee-eaterMerops nubicusBenin, 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.
[[File:Southern Carmine Bee-eater (Merops nubicoides) (16732824032).jpg175px]]Southern carmine bee-eaterMerops nubicoidesKwaZulu-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

References

  1. Linnaeus, Carl. (1758). "Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis". Holmiae:Laurentii Salvii.
  2. (1945). "Check-list of Birds of the World". Harvard University Press.
  3. Jobling, James A. (2010). "The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names". Christopher Helm.
  4. (August 2022). "Todies, motmots, bee-eaters". International Ornithologists' Union.
  5. (2007). "Molecular phylogenetics of the bee-eaters (Aves: Meropidae) based on nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequence data". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.
  6. "Species Updates – IOC World Bird List".
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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