European Bee-eater

Merops apiaster

The European bee-eater is a bird species in the bee-eater family, Meropidae. It has the largest range of any bee-eater species, breeding in southern and central Europe, northern and southern Africa, and western Asia. Except for the resident southern African population, the species is strongly migratory, wintering in tropical Africa. This species occurs as a spring overshoot north of its usual range, with occasional breeding in northern Europe. Source

Where it is now

In the last 8 weeks this bird was recorded 35,006 times across 39 areas (each area is a 5 degree square).

See the European Bee-eater on the live map

Movement and weather

Each season it is first heard regularly where daytime highs are around 27°C (typically 19 to 29°C, from 25 areas). That range is wide, so temperature alone does not explain when it turns up.

Arrival dates

The week it was first heard regularly in each region, after at least six weeks away. Dates differ from south to north, so a region has a range.

Download every area as CSV

Figures are effort corrected and come from automatic sound identification, which makes mistakes. How this is measured and how it compares with human observers.