Northern Carmine Bee-eater

Merops nubicus

Brilliant carmine body, turquoise-green head. Perches on Kori Bustards to pluck insects flushed by the bird's footsteps.

Habitat: Wooded savanna and shrub-dotted grassland, arid acacia steppe, floodplains, and lake/river shores from sea level up to roughly 1,000-1,500 m; nests colonially in tunnels excavated into sandy cliffs and riverbanks.
Fun fact: Northern Carmine Bee-eaters nest in dense colonies dug into sandy riverbank cliffs, with individual nesting tunnels that can run more than 8 feet (2.4 m) horizontally into the cliff face.
Range: Sub-Saharan Africa across the northern tropics, occurring in 28+ countries from Senegal and Mauritania in the west through Chad, Cameroon, Sudan and Ethiopia to Somalia and Kenya in the east, extending south to Tanzania and Uganda; occurs as a vagrant further south (e.g. Burundi). BirdLife DataZone (2025) gives extent of occurrence as ~8.63 million km2 (breeding) and ~10.6 million km2 (non-breeding).
Diet: Aerial insectivore, hawking flying insects from a perch: mainly bees and other Hymenoptera (including flying ants), plus grasshoppers, locusts and other Orthoptera, cicadas, butterflies, dragonflies and termites.
Size: 0.27 m
Wingspan: 0.29 m
Lifespan: 7.4 years

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