Blue-tailed bee-eater
Merops philippinus Linnaeus, 1767
The blue-tailed bee-eater (Merops philippinus) is a species in the family Meropidae, order Coraciiformes. Recorded adults weigh 34 g to 49 g. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.
Quick facts about the blue-tailed bee-eater
- Weight
- 34 g – 49 gsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Diet
- Invertivoresrc for Diet
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- wetlandsrc for Habitat
- Egg incubation
- 21 dayssrc for Egg incubation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 4.25 – 5.9src for Young per litter or clutch
- Litters or clutches a year
- 1src for Litters or clutches a year
- Lifestyle
- Perchingsrc for Lifestyle
- Migration
- Migratorysrc for Migration
- Conservation status
- Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- 1 countrysrc for Countries on record
Photos of the blue-tailed bee-eater
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
1 more photo exists under a licence we cannot display: view at source.
Where does the blue-tailed bee-eater live?
Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.
The blue-tailed bee-eater is listed for 1 country.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.
What is the blue-tailed bee-eater?
The blue-tailed bee-eater (Merops philippinus) is a bee-eater species mostly seen in open habitats close to water. It is widely distributed across South and Southeast Asia where many populations are strongly migratory, and seen seasonally in many parts but breeding colonially in small areas across their range, mostly in river valleys, where they nest by tunneling into loamy sand banks.
From the Wikipedia article “Blue-tailed bee-eater” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Blue-tailed_bee-eater&oldid=1333887932), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
Is the blue-tailed bee-eater endangered?
The blue-tailed bee-eater is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.
How is the blue-tailed bee-eater classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classAves
- orderCoraciiformes
- familyMeropidae
- genusMerops
- SpeciesMerops philippinus Linnaeus, 1767
Synonyms Merops philippinus celebensis, Merops philippinus javanicus, Merops philippinus philippinus, Merops philippinus salvadorii, Merops superciliosus philippinus
Other names and names in other languages (50)
- وروار أزرق الذيلArabic
- জিঞাখাটীAssamese
- নীললেজ সুইচোরাBangla
- Gwespetaer lost glasBreton
- abellerol cuablauCatalan
- Abellerol de Coa BlavaCatalan
- vlha modroocasáCzech
- Gwenynysor cynffonlasWelsh
- Blåhalet BiæderDanish
- BlauschwanzspintGerman
- BlauschwanzbienenfresserGerman
- bluvosta abelmanĝuloEsperanto
- Filipina abelmanĝuloEsperanto
- Abejaruco coliazulSpanish
- sinisaba-mesilasenäppEstonian
- زنبورخوار دمآبیPersian
- safiirimehiläissyöjäFinnish
- Guêpier à queue d'azurFrench
- Guêpier à queue d’azurFrench
- שרקרק כחול זנבHebrew
- modrorepa pčelaricaCroatian
- kékfarkú gyurgyalagHungarian
- Kirik-kirik lautIndonesian
- Gruccione codazzurraItalian
- ルリオハチクイJapanese
- ハリオハチクイJapanese
- ನೀಲಿಬಾಲದ ಕಳ್ಳಿಪೀರKannada
- mėlynuodegis bitininkasLithuanian
- വലിയ വേലിത്തത്തMalayalam
- निळ्या शेपटीचा राघू.Marathi
- Burung Berek-berek Carik DadaMalay
- ပုစဉ်းထိုးမြီးပြာBurmese
- नीलपुच्छ्रे मुरलीचराNepali
- BlauwstaartbijeneterDutch
- blåhalebieterNorwegian
- żołna modrosternaPolish
- وڈا پترنگاWestern Panjabi
- abelharuco-de-cauda-azulPortuguese
- Синехвостая щуркаRussian
- včelárik modrochvostýSlovak
- bodičasti čebelarSlovenian
- плаворепа пчеларицаSerbian
- Plavorepa pčelaricaSerbian
- blåstjärtad biätareSwedish
- நீலவால் பஞ்சுருட்டான்Tamil
- นกจาบคาหัวเขียวThai
- Mavi Kuyruklu ArıkuşuTurkish
- бджолоїдка синьохвостаUkrainian
- Trảu ngực nâuVietnamese
- 栗喉蜂虎Chinese
Relatives of the blue-tailed bee-eater
Other species in the same genus Merops.
European bee-eater
Merops apiaster
Asian green bee-eater
Merops orientalis
Blue-cheeked bee-eater
Merops persicus
Rainbow bee-eater
Merops ornatus
Chestnut-headed bee-eater
Merops leschenaulti
White-fronted bee-eater
Merops bullockoides
CompareBlue-tailed bee-eater vs European bee-eaterBlue-tailed bee-eater vs Asian green bee-eaterBlue-tailed bee-eater vs Blue-cheeked bee-eaterBlue-tailed bee-eater vs Rainbow bee-eater
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the blue-tailed bee-eater?
An adult blue-tailed bee-eater weighs 34 g – 49 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
Where does the blue-tailed bee-eater live?
Catalogue of Life checklists list the blue-tailed bee-eater for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.
Is the blue-tailed bee-eater endangered?
The blue-tailed bee-eater is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.
What kind of animal is the blue-tailed bee-eater?
The blue-tailed bee-eater (Merops philippinus) belongs to the family Meropidae in the order Coraciiformes.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Blue-tailed bee-eater (Merops philippinus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/blue-tailed-bee-eater
“Blue-tailed bee-eater (Merops philippinus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/blue-tailed-bee-eater.
@misc{blue_tailed_bee_eater_2026,
title = {Blue-tailed bee-eater (Merops philippinus)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/blue-tailed-bee-eater},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}