Michele Mendi

The species occurs in sunny, open landscapes rich in steep slopes of soft soil (riverbanks, pits, loess walls) and large flying insects. Its distribution extends from NW Africa and Iberian Peninsula N to Denmark and E to W Mongolia and NW China (Bastian & Bastian 2022).

In Europe, the species occurs mostly in S & E Europe, with patchy distribution in C Europe. European strongholds are located in Spain in SE Europe (Russia, Ukraine, E Balkan Peninsula), Asia Minor (Keller et al. 2020).

Eurasian-African migrant. European populations winter in W, E & S Africa.

Its European population trend is stable on a short-term. Evaluated as “Least Concern” (BirdLife International 2022).

Season of assessment

B

Population trendStable
Population size
(min-max, best estimate)		7370000-11200000,8970000
Red List categoryLC
Franks, S., Fiedler, W., Arizaga, J., Jiguet, F., Nikolov, B., van der Jeugd, Ambrosini, R, Aizpurua, O., Bairlein, F., Clark, J., Fattorini, N, Hammond, M., Higgins, D, Levering, H., Skellorn, W., Spina, F, Thorup, K. Walker, J., Woodward, I. and Baillie, S.R. (1) (2022) Online Atlas of the movements of European bird populations. https://migrationatlas.org EURING/CMS (1) Principal investigator
Map

Overall Connectivity for European Bee-eater

Apart from a disjunct resident population in S Africa, the species is a long-distant migrant – W European birds fly mainly SW to W Africa, while those from E Europe travel to E & S Africa (Bastian & Bastian 2022).

Birds breeding in W, SW and partly C Europe (Germany) take SW routes with some encounters S to Morocco. Some birds from the German population travel S via Italy & C Mediterranean. Part of C European breeders (E of Czechia) and all populations in SE Europe migrate SE through the Balkan Peninsula to the E Mediterranean region where are joint by the birds breeding in European Russia. The latter use stopover sites in the Caucasus region. Wintering birds are encountered S to Zimbabwe – breeding in Russia (Ilichev & Flint 2005) or migrating via Israel.

Long-distance encounters from African wintering grounds are very limited in number.

Recoveries by Condition for European Bee-eater

Most encounters are obtained after 2000. They come mainly from May-Aug, peaking in Jul (70% of all records). Most encounters until Jul are based primarily on adults, while those from Aug and early Sep – mainly juveniles. Majority of encounters (ca. 98%) are recorded in C, SC and SW Europe (71, 22, and 5% respectively). Pre-1960 records sample is very limited.  The encounters based on dead birds decreased markedly over the years: from 65% in 1961-1990 to about 1% after 1991; those based on alive birds increased from 65% in 1961-1990 to 98% after 1991. The latter is mostly due to ringing recoveries. Shooting as а factor has been largely reduced from 18% in 1961-1990 to almost none after 1991.

Most of the distant (>=50 km) recoveries are less than 2000km away (but some are more than 5000km).

Annual Movements for European Bee-eater

Post-breeding dispersal takes place from late Jul, autumn migration in Europe is most intensive Aug-Sep. African wintering grounds are reached as early as Sep, the birds stay there until Mar-May (S Africa) or Apr-May (Sahel). Breeding sites are reached from late Apr (S Europe) to mid/late May in C Europe.

Birds from the recently established and heavily increased population in E Germany are tracked via the W & C Mediterranean Sea and Sahara to their wintering grounds in S Congo/N Angola, while those from SE Europe (Bulgaria) migrate via the Middle East and E African Rift Valley to their wintering sites in southern Africa (S Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe) (Hahn et al. 2020). Tracked birds from the Portugal migrate S to winter in three W African regions:  Senegal/Guinea-Bissau, Mali/Ivory Coast and Benin/Nigeria (Costa et al. 2021).

Connectivity by Month by Region for European Bee-eater

Dispersal movements after the breeding season are evident as early as mid-summer. Within Europe, autumn migration takes place mostly in late summer and early autumn, the encounters progressively decrease afterwards. Birds stay in their wintering grounds in Africa mainly between mid-autumn and mid- to late spring. European breeding grounds are occupied in mid- to late spring, depending on latitude.

An encounter of a bird in Ukraine marked in Italy suggests that at least some birds from the eastern populations use routes across the C Mediterranean Sea as well. 

It was recently found that birds can migrate 14,000 km in the same group and groups that separate during migration can re-join after 5,000 km apart (Dhanjal-Adams et al. 2018).

Boris Nikolov

References

Statistics Map
N records N individuals N recoveries
Mapped data*
Total available data
*Mapped data include only distant (>= 50 km) recoveries
References Map
2005 . The Birds of Russia and adjacent territories: Strigiformes – Piciformes. KMK, MoscowEditor(s): Ilichev, V.D., Flint, V.E.
2020 . European Breeding Bird Atlas 2: Distribution, Abundance and Change. European Bird Census Council & Lynx Edicions, BarcelonaEditor(s): Keller, V., S. Herrando, P. Voříšek, et al.
Bastian, H.-V. and A. Bastian 2022 . European Bee-eater (Merops apiaster), version 2.0. In Birds of the World Link to Article (DOI: https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.eubeat1.02) Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA
BirdLife International 2022 . Species factsheet: Merops apiaster. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 20/01/2022.
Costa, J.S., Hahn, S., Araújo, P.M., Dhanjal‑Adams, K. L., Rocha, A. D., Alves, J. A. 2021 . Linking migratory performance to breeding phenology and productivity in an Afro-Palearctic long-distance migrant. Sci Rep 11
Dhanjal-Adams, K.L., Bauer, S., Emmenegger, T., Hahn, S., Lisovski, S., Liechti, F. 2018 . Spatiotemporal Group Dynamics in a Long-Distance Migratory Bird. Current Biology 28: 2824–2830
Hahn, S., Alves, J.A., Bedev, K., Costa, J.S., Emmenegger, T., Schulze, M., Tamm, P., Zehtindjiev, P. and Dhanjal-Adams, K.L. 2020 . Range-wide migration corridors and non-breeding areas of a northward expanding Afro-Palaearctic migrant, the European Bee-eater Merops apiaster. Ibis 162: 345–355

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