• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Distribution map
• Reference and further resources

Taxonomic source(s)
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A. and Fishpool, L.D.C. 2014. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Non-passerines. Lynx Edicions BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2024	Least Concern
2016	Least Concern
2013	Least Concern
2012	Least Concern
2011	Least Concern
2008	Not Recognised
2004	Not Recognised
2000	Not Recognised
1994	Not Recognised
1988	Not Recognised

Migratory status	not a migrant	Forest dependency	high
Land-mass type		Average mass	-

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	2,690,000 km2
Severely fragmented?	no	-

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	unknown	-	-	-
Population trend	decreasing	-	suspected	-
Generation length	3.17 years	-	-	-

Population justification: The global population size has not been quantified, but the species is reported to be not uncommon and rare to locally common (del Hoyo et al. 2001).

This species is considered to have a high dependency on forest habitat, and tree cover is estimated to have declined by 6.6% within its mapped range over the past 10 years (Global Forest Watch 2022, using Hansen et al. [2013] data and methods disclosed therein). It is therefore tentatively suspected that this rate of cover loss may have led to a decline of between 1-19% in the species' population size over the same time frame, with a best estimate of reduction being 5-9%.

Trend justification:   .

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Cameroon	extant	native	yes
Central African Republic	extant	native	yes
Congo	extant	native	yes
Congo, The Democratic Republic of the	extant	native	yes
Equatorial Guinea	extant	native	yes
Gabon	extant	native	yes
Kenya	extant	native	yes

Country/Territory	IBA Name
Cameroon	Boumba - Bek
Cameroon	Campo Ma'an complex
Cameroon	Dja Faunal Reserve
Cameroon	Lobéké National Park
Cameroon	Mount Cameroon and Mokoko-Onge
Cameroon	Nki
Cameroon	Yabassi
Central African Republic	Dzanga-Ndoki National Park
Central African Republic	Ngotto
Congo	Dimonika Biosphere Reserve
Congo	Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park complex
Congo	Odzala National Park complex
Congo, The Democratic Republic of the	Lomako - Yekokora
Congo, The Democratic Republic of the	Maiko National Park
Congo, The Democratic Republic of the	Mount Hoyo Reserve
Congo, The Democratic Republic of the	Ngiri
Congo, The Democratic Republic of the	Okapi Faunal Reserve
Congo, The Democratic Republic of the	Salonga National Park
Congo, The Democratic Republic of the	Virunga National Park
Equatorial Guinea	Monte Alen National Park
Equatorial Guinea	Nsork Highlands National Park
Gabon	Gamba Protected Areas Complex
Gabon	Ipassa Strict Nature Reserve
Gabon	Lopé Faunal Reserve
Gabon	Minkébé Forest Reserve
Kenya	Kakamega forest
Kenya	South Nandi forest

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Artificial/Terrestrial	Arable Land	suitable	resident
Artificial/Terrestrial	Subtropical/Tropical Heavily Degraded Former Forest	suitable	resident
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Lowland	major	resident
Altitude	0 - 2200 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

---

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Blue-headed Bee-eater Merops muelleri. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/blue-headed-bee-eater-merops-muelleri on 22/12/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 22/12/2024.