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MEROPIDAE - Bee-eaters (3:27)
NYCTYORNIS Jardine & Selby, 1830 M - Merops amictus Temminck, 1824; type by subsequent designation (G.R. Gray, 1840, A List of the Genera of Birds, p. 11).  
Nyctyornis amictus   (Temminck, 1824) Red-bearded Bee-eater
vSW continental SE Asia, Thai-Malay Pen., Sumatra, Bangka I. (off SE Sumatra), Borneo
Nyctyornis athertoni Blue-bearded Bee-eater
athertoni (Jardine & Selby, 1828)1,2 αiHimalayan foothills (east from Himachal Pradesh), NE India, S Yunnan, continental SE Asia (except SW)
brevicaudatus (Koelz, 1939) vHainan
MEROPOGON Bonaparte, 1850 M - Meropogon forsteni Bonaparte, 1850; type by monotypy  
Meropogon forsteni   Bonaparte, 1850 Purple-bearded Bee-eater
Sulawesi (except SW)
MEROPS Linnaeus, 1758 M - Merops apiaster Linnaeus, 1758; type by Linnaean tautonymy  3,4
Merops bullockoides 5  A. Smith, 1834 White-fronted Bee-eater
iW Kenya; Gabon to S DR Congo and S Tanzania, south to Angola, N Botswana and NE and C South Africa
Merops bulocki6 Red-throated Bee-eater
bulocki Vieillot, 1817 iSenegal to N Central African Republic
frenatus Hartlaub, 1854 vSE Sudan and South Sudan to W Ethiopia, NE DR Congo and N Uganda
Merops breweri   (Cassin, 1859) Black-headed Bee-eater
iIvory Coast, Ghana, SE Nigeria, Central African Republic, Gabon to W and N DR Congo and Cabinda
Merops albicollis   Vieillot, 1817 White-throated Bee-eater
vSenegal to Eritrea and Kenya >> PR Congo, Rwanda and N Tanzania, Yemen
Merops revoilii   Oustalet, 1882 Somali Bee-eater
iSE Ethiopia, W Somalia, NE Kenya
Merops malimbicus   Shaw, 1806 Rosy Bee-eaterα
vSE Ivory Coast, Ghana to Gabon and W DR Congo
Merops nubicus   J.F. Gmelin, 1788 Northern Carmine Bee-eater
vSenegal to Ethiopia and S Somalia >> N and E Kenya and NE Tanzania
Merops nubicoides 7  Des Murs & Pucheran, 1846 Southern Carmine Bee-eater
S Angola to S Malawi, south to N and E Botswana and NE South Africa >> S DR Congo and W Tanzania
Merops orientalis Green Bee-eater
viridissimus Swainson, 18378 vSenegal to Eritrea, South Sudan
cleopatra Nicoll, 1910 iNile valley from Egypt south to N Sudan
cyanophrys (Cabanis & F. Heine, Sr., 1860) iDead Sea depression to W and S Arabian Pen.
muscatensis Sharpe, 18869 vC and E Arabian Pen.
beludschicus Neumann, 1910 vS Iran to NW India
orientalis Latham, 1801 αvIndia (except NW)
ceylonicus Whistler, 1944 vSri Lanka [Whistler, 1944 #4161]
ferrugeiceps Anderson, 187910,11 αiYunnan, continental SE Asia (except extreme NE)
Merops leschenaulti Chestnut-headed Bee-eater
leschenaulti Vieillot, 181712 iHimalayas (east from Uttarakhand), NE and SW India, Sri Lanka, S Yunnan, mainland SE Asia to Thai-Malay Pen. (except extreme S), Sumatra
quinticolor Vieillot, 1817 iJava, Bali
andamanensis Marien, 1950 vCoco Is. (off Myanmar), Andamans [Marien, 1950 #2488]
Merops viridis Blue-throated Bee-eater
viridis Linnaeus, 1758 vEC to S China, E continental SE Asia, Thai-Malay Pen., Greater Sundas >> S continental SE Asia, Thai-Malay Pen., Greater Sundas
americanus Statius Muller, 1776 vPhilippines
Merops philippinus13 Blue-tailed Bee-eater
javanicus Horsfield, 1821 vN Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, S China, mainland SE Asia >> mainland SE Asia, Greater Sundas, W Lesser Sundas (?)
philippinus Linnaeus, 176714 αvPhilippines [Linnaeus, 1767 #2397]
celebensis W. Blasius, 1885 vSulawesi [Blasius, 1885 #335]
salvadorii A.B. Meyer, 1891 iLocally in lowland New Guinea, Bismarck Arch. (Long I., Umboi, New Britain)
Merops superciliosus15,16 Olive Bee-eater
superciliosus Linnaeus, 1766 vMadagascar; Somalia and E Africa south to Mozambique and Zambezi valley >> EC Africa
alternans Clancey, 1971 iW Angola, NW Namibia [Clancey, 1971 #850]
Merops persicus Blue-cheeked Bee-eater
persicus Pallas, 1773 vN Egypt, SW Asia, C Asia to Kazakhstan and south to Pakistan and NW India
chrysocercus Cabanis & F. Heine, Sr., 1860 vW Sahara >> W Africa
Merops apiaster   Linnaeus, 1758 European Bee-eater
i(a) N Africa, S Europe to C Asia, Pakistan and Kashmir >> sub-Saharan Africa; (b) Southern Africa >> SC Africa north to S DR Congo, Zambia
Merops ornatus   Latham, 1801 Rainbow Bee-eaterα
vAustralia, SE New Guinea >> Solomons, lowland New Guinea, Bismarck Arch., Lesser Sundas, Moluccas, Sulawesi and satellites, Bali
Merops boehmi   Reichenow, 1882 Böhm's Bee-eater
iTanzania to N Zambia, Malawi and NW Mozambique
Merops hirundineus Swallow-tailed Bee-eater
chrysolaimus Jardine & Selby, 1830 vSenegal to C Nigeria and S Chad
heuglini (Neumann, 1906) iNE DR Congo, N Uganda, South Sudan, SW Ethiopia
furcatus Stanley, 181417 vSE DR Congo and Tanzania to E Zambia, E Zimbabwe and Mozambique
hirundineus A.A.H. Lichtenstein, 1793 vAngola and W Zambia to Namibia, Botswana, W and C Zimbabwe and N South Africa
Merops lafresnayii Cinnamon-chested Bee-eater
lafresnayii Guérin-Méneville, 184318 Ethiopia
oreobates (Sharpe, 1892) S South Sudan and E DR Congo to Kenya and N Tanzania
Merops variegatus Blue-breasted Bee-eater
loringi (Mearns, 1915) iSE Nigeria and Cameroon to Uganda, NW Tanzania and W Kenya
variegatus Vieillot, 1817 vGabon to C DR Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and N Angola
bangweoloensis (C.H.B. Grant, 1915) vS DR Congo, Zambia, SW Tanzania
Merops pusillus Little Bee-eater
pusillus Statius Muller, 1776 vSenegal to SW Sudan and N DR Congo
ocularis (Reichenow, 1900) vC Sudan to W Ethiopia, south to NE DR Congo, N Uganda
cyanostictus Cabanis, 186919 vC and E Ethiopia, W Somalia, Kenya
meridionalis (Sharpe, 1892)20 vS and E DR Congo to Tanzania south to C Angola, Zimbabwe, NE and E South Africa
argutus Clancey, 1967 vSW Angola, N Namibia, Botswana, NW South Africa [Clancey, 1967 #832]
Merops gularis Black Bee-eater
gularis Shaw, 1798 vSierra Leone to S Nigeria
australis (Reichenow, 1885) vSE Nigeria to W Uganda and N Angola
Merops muelleri   (Cassin, 1857) Blue-headed Bee-eater
S Cameroon to E DR Congo, W Kenya
Merops mentalis 21  Cabanis, 1889 Blue-moustached Bee-eater
vSierra Leone to SW Cameroon; Bioko
1 Includes bartletti Koelz, 1954 [Koelz, 1954 #2250]; see Ripley (1982) [Ripley, 1982 #3332].
2 For date correction see Sherborn (1894) [Sherborn, 1894 #3603]
3 Species sequence based on Marks et al. (2007) [Marks, 2007 #9504].
4 Includes Melittophagus, Dicrocercus, Aerops and Bombylonax; see Fry (1969) [Fry, 1969 #8663].
5 Includes randorum Clancey, 1953 [Clancey, 1953 #786], see White (1965) [White, 1965 #4191]; named explicitly for A.L. Rand and thus requiring mandatory change to randi. However, Sao Hill was probably Clancey's second rand.
6 Forms a superspecies with M. bullockoides; see Fry in Snow (1978) [Snow, 1978 #13852].
7 For treatment as a separate species from M. nubicus see Barnes in Hockey et al. (2005) [Hockey, 2005 #12724]; thus regarded here as allospecies.
8 We include flavoviridis Niethammer, 1955 [Niethammer, 1955 #2770], which is probably a colour morph; see Fry (2001) [Fry, 2001 #1633].
9 Includes najdanus; see Fry (2001) [Fry, 2001 #1633].
10 The name ferrugeiceps was validly used by Anderson; its availability is not affected by ferrugiceps Hodgson, 1844, a nomen nudum. The type locality was restricted to Mandalay by Deignan (1963) [Deignan, 1963 #1245] who made the name birmanus a junior synonym.
11 For a suggestion that this does not belong in this species see Burt (2004) [Burt, 2004 #588].
12 Precedence of this name over quinticolor was either selected as First Reviser by Peters (1945) [Peters, 1945 #3013] or earlier.
13 Monotypic in Fry (2001) [Fry, 2001 #1633], but most writers on Asian birds recognise subspecies following Deignan (1955) [Deignan, 1955 #1232].
14 Named in the 1767 part of the '1766' Systema Naturae in Errata.
15 For treatment as a separate species from M. persicus see Fry (2001) [Fry, 2001 #1633]; these two were previously separated from M. philippinus by Vaurie (1965) [Vaurie, 1965 #3967].
16 Forms a superspecies with M. philippinus and M. persicus; see Fry (2001) [Fry, 2001 #1633].
17 Includes strenuus Clancey, 1962 [Clancey, 1962 #809]; see Dowsett-Lemaire & Dowsett (2006) [Dowsett-Lemaire, 2006 #13615].
18 For recognition as a separate species from M. variegatus, and attachment to it of M. oreobates, see Turner (2010) [Turner, 2010 #12615].
19 Includes sharpei; see Greenway (1978) [Greenway, 1978 #1814].
20 Includes landanae da Rosa Pinto, 1972 [da Rosa Pinto, 1972 #1112]; see Dean (2000) [Dean, 2000 #14040].
21 For recognition as a separate species from M. muelleri see Marks et al. (2007) [Marks, 2007 #9504].
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