---
title: "Northern Carmine Bee-eater"
description: "Merops nubicus — Birds. The northern carmine bee-eater (Merops nubicus) is a brightly-coloured bird in the bee-eater family, Meropidae."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/animal/northern-carmine-bee-eater
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Northern Carmine Bee-eater

> Merops nubicus — Birds. The northern carmine bee-eater (Merops nubicus) is a brightly-coloured bird in the bee-eater family, Meropidae.

- Scientific name: *Merops nubicus*
- Category: `birds` (Birds)
- Habitats: `savanna` (Savanna)
- iNaturalist observations: 813
- Wikidata: [Q1071843](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1071843)
- iNaturalist taxon: [2220](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/2220)

## Names

- en: Northern Carmine Bee-eater
- de: Karminspint
- es: Abejaruco Carmesí Norteño
- fr: Guêpier écarlate
- nl: Karmijnrode bijeneter
- pt: Abelharuco-núbio
- pl: Żołna szkarłatna

## Countries with the most observations

ET (129), UG (113), KE (111), TZ (97), BJ (85), CD (37), SN (32), NG (23), TD (21), NE (18), GH (15), GM (14)

## Summary

The northern carmine bee-eater (Merops nubicus) is a brightly-coloured bird in the bee-eater family, Meropidae. It is found across northern tropical Africa, from Senegal eastwards to Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya. It was formerly considered to be conspecific with the southern carmine bee-eater which has a carmine coloured throat rather than the blue throat of the northern species.

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_carmine_bee-eater

## Photo

![Northern Carmine Bee-eater](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/northern-carmine-bee-eater/medium.jpg)

Photo: Chuck Wilson · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/198373520

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/northern-carmine-bee-eater?lang=en` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).