diff --git a/pkg/tsdb/elasticsearch/error_handling_test.go b/pkg/tsdb/elasticsearch/error_handling_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..20dddacda4c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/tsdb/elasticsearch/error_handling_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,149 @@
+package elasticsearch
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
+)
+
+func TestErrorAvgMissingField(t *testing.T) {
+	query := []byte(`
+	[
+		{
+			"refId": "A",
+			"metrics": [
+			{ "type": "avg", "id": "1" }
+			],
+			"bucketAggs": [
+			{ "type": "date_histogram", "field": "@timestamp", "id": "2" }
+			]
+		}
+	]
+	`)
+
+	response := []byte(`
+	{
+		"error": {
+		  "reason": "Required one of fields [field, script], but none were specified. ",
+		  "root_cause": [
+			{
+			  "reason": "Required one of fields [field, script], but none were specified. ",
+			  "type": "illegal_argument_exception"
+			}
+		  ],
+		  "type": "illegal_argument_exception"
+		},
+		"status": 400
+	  }
+	`)
+
+	result, err := queryDataTestWithResponseCode(query, 400, response)
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+
+	// FIXME: we should return the received error message
+	require.Len(t, result.response.Responses, 0)
+}
+
+func TestErrorAvgMissingFieldNoDetailedErrors(t *testing.T) {
+	query := []byte(`
+	[
+		{
+			"refId": "A",
+			"metrics": [
+			{ "type": "avg", "id": "1" }
+			],
+			"bucketAggs": [
+			{ "type": "date_histogram", "field": "@timestamp", "id": "2" }
+			]
+		}
+	]
+	`)
+
+	// you can receive such an error if you configure elastic with:
+	// http.detailed_errors.enabled=false
+	response := []byte(`
+	{ "error": "No ElasticsearchException found", "status": 400 }
+	`)
+
+	result, err := queryDataTestWithResponseCode(query, 400, response)
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+
+	// FIXME: we should return the received error message
+	require.Len(t, result.response.Responses, 0)
+}
+
+func TestErrorTooManyDateHistogramBuckets(t *testing.T) {
+	query := []byte(`
+	[
+		{
+			"refId": "A",
+			"metrics": [
+			{ "type": "count", "id": "1" }
+			],
+			"bucketAggs": [
+			{ "type": "date_histogram", "field": "@timestamp", "settings": { "interval": "10s" }, "id": "2" }
+			]
+		}
+	]
+	`)
+
+	response := []byte(`
+	{
+		"responses": [
+			{
+				"error": {
+					"caused_by": {
+						"max_buckets": 65536,
+						"reason": "Trying to create too many buckets. Must be less than or equal to: [65536].",
+						"type": "too_many_buckets_exception"
+					},
+					"reason": "",
+					"root_cause": [],
+					"type": "search_phase_execution_exception"
+				},
+				"status": 503
+			}
+		]
+	}
+	`)
+
+	result, err := queryDataTestWithResponseCode(query, 200, response)
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+
+	require.Len(t, result.response.Responses, 1)
+
+	dataResponse, ok := result.response.Responses["A"]
+
+	require.True(t, ok)
+	require.Len(t, dataResponse.Frames, 0)
+	require.ErrorContains(t, dataResponse.Error, "Trying to create too many buckets. Must be less than or equal to: [65536].")
+}
+
+func TestNonElasticError(t *testing.T) {
+	query := []byte(`
+	[
+		{
+			"refId": "A",
+			"metrics": [
+			{ "type": "count", "id": "1" }
+			],
+			"bucketAggs": [
+			{ "type": "date_histogram", "field": "@timestamp", "settings": { "interval": "10s" }, "id": "2" }
+			]
+		}
+	]
+	`)
+
+	// this scenario is about an error-message that does not come directly from elastic,
+	// but from a middleware/proxy server that for example reports that it is forbidden
+	// to access the database for some reason.
+	response := []byte(`Access to the database is forbidden`)
+
+	_, err := queryDataTestWithResponseCode(query, 403, response)
+	// FIXME: we should return something better.
+	// currently it returns the error-message about being unable to decode JSON
+	// it is not 100% clear what we should return to the browser
+	// (and what to debug-log for example), we could return
+	// at least something like "unknown response, http status code 403"
+	require.ErrorContains(t, err, "invalid character")
+}
diff --git a/pkg/tsdb/elasticsearch/querydata_test.go b/pkg/tsdb/elasticsearch/querydata_test.go
index c3161d4b1b3..34cc82d28a0 100644
--- a/pkg/tsdb/elasticsearch/querydata_test.go
+++ b/pkg/tsdb/elasticsearch/querydata_test.go
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ import (
 type queryDataTestRoundTripper struct {
 	requestCallback func(req *http.Request) error
 	body            []byte
+	statusCode      int
 }
 
 // we fake the http-request-call. we return a fixed byte-array (defined by the test snapshot),
@@ -28,16 +29,16 @@ func (rt *queryDataTestRoundTripper) RoundTrip(req *http.Request) (*http.Respons
 	}
 
 	return &http.Response{
-		StatusCode: http.StatusOK,
+		StatusCode: rt.statusCode,
 		Header:     http.Header{},
 		Body:       io.NopCloser(bytes.NewReader(rt.body)),
 	}, nil
 }
 
 // we setup a fake datasource-info
-func newFlowTestDsInfo(body []byte, reuestCallback func(req *http.Request) error) *es.DatasourceInfo {
+func newFlowTestDsInfo(body []byte, statusCode int, reuestCallback func(req *http.Request) error) *es.DatasourceInfo {
 	client := http.Client{
-		Transport: &queryDataTestRoundTripper{body: body, requestCallback: reuestCallback},
+		Transport: &queryDataTestRoundTripper{body: body, statusCode: statusCode, requestCallback: reuestCallback},
 	}
 	return &es.DatasourceInfo{
 		ESVersion:                  semver.MustParse("8.5.0"),
@@ -104,7 +105,7 @@ type queryDataTestResult struct {
 	requestBytes []byte
 }
 
-func queryDataTest(queriesBytes []byte, responseBytes []byte) (queryDataTestResult, error) {
+func queryDataTestWithResponseCode(queriesBytes []byte, responseStatusCode int, responseBytes []byte) (queryDataTestResult, error) {
 	queries, err := newFlowTestQueries(queriesBytes)
 	if err != nil {
 		return queryDataTestResult{}, err
@@ -113,7 +114,7 @@ func queryDataTest(queriesBytes []byte, responseBytes []byte) (queryDataTestResu
 	requestBytesStored := false
 	var requestBytes []byte
 
-	dsInfo := newFlowTestDsInfo(responseBytes, func(req *http.Request) error {
+	dsInfo := newFlowTestDsInfo(responseBytes, responseStatusCode, func(req *http.Request) error {
 		requestBytes, err = io.ReadAll(req.Body)
 
 		bodyCloseError := req.Body.Close()
@@ -144,3 +145,7 @@ func queryDataTest(queriesBytes []byte, responseBytes []byte) (queryDataTestResu
 		requestBytes: requestBytes,
 	}, nil
 }
+
+func queryDataTest(queriesBytes []byte, responseBytes []byte) (queryDataTestResult, error) {
+	return queryDataTestWithResponseCode(queriesBytes, 200, responseBytes)
+}