Maps of the birds of the Western Palearctic Region

Bee-eaters

CORACIIFORMES

Meropidae

Merops orientalis
Arid steppe, thorn bush, dense second growth, wooded hillsides, towns, swamps. In sw Mauritania, Senegambia, s Mali, Burkina Faso, s Niger, Ivory Coast, Benin, n Nigeria, n Cameroon, s Chad, n C.African Rep.,
and s Sudan and Uganda to nw Ethiopia, Eritrea and n in the Nile Valley through Egypt. Lowlands to 1500 m from s Israel, Arabia e through se Iran, Pakistan and India to sw China, Burma, Thailand and Indochina.
-
-

                     -
                      Merops Gr. merops (Gruccione)
                      orientalis L. orientali (dell' est)
-
-

Merops persicus
Open country, arid scrub, semi-desert, steppe, farmlands.
Locally in s Morocco, n Algeria, Tunisia and w Libya; sporadically in subSaharan w Africa in Mauritania, Mali, Senegambia, Nigeria, L. Chad basin; Sudan, Djibouti and from ne Egypt, Near East and n Arabia e through Middle East, s Russia and s to Pakistan and nw India.
Closely related to superciliosus and sometimes considered conspecific. Dowsett and Dowsett-Lemaire (1993) support persicus, superciliosus and philippinus as separate species.
-
-

persicus L. Persicus (Persiano)

Merops apiaster
Open country, woodland, orchards, desert oases, farmlands.
From n Mediterranean region n to Iberian Pen., s France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Romania and Hungary, incl. most islands, s to nw Africa from Morocco to nw Libya, and e through Turkey, wc,s Russia, se to Aral Sea region and e to Kazakhstan and Turkestan, Near East, Iran, Iraq and ne Arabia to w Pakistan, n India (Kashmir) and extreme sw Siberia (Altai), with sporadic breeding n to n France, Scotland, Germany, Denmark, Poland, c Russia and probably Finland.
A small population breeds occasionally in Namibia and S. Africa during the southern hemisphere summer and winters in central Africa from 15°S latitude north to the Equator.
European and Asian breeding birds winter in Africa south to Cape Town.
-
-