Greater Honeyguide Research Articles

The sight of an adult brood parasite near the nest is an insufficient cue for a honeyguide host to reject foreign eggs.

Hosts of brood-parasitic birds typically evolve anti-parasitism defences, including mobbing of parasitic intruders at the nest and the ability to recognize and reject foreign eggs from their clutches. The Greater Honeyguide Indicator indicator is a virulent brood parasite that punctures host eggs and kills host young, and accordingly, a common host, the Little Bee-eater Merops pusillus frequently rejects entire clutches that have been parasitized. We predicted that given the high costs of accidentally rejecting an entire clutch, and that the experimental addition of a foreign egg is insufficient to induce this defence, Bee-eaters require the sight of an adult parasite near the nest as an additional cue for parasitism before they reject a clutch. We found that many Little Bee-eater parents mobbed Greater Honeyguide dummies while ignoring barbet control dummies, showing that they recognized them as a threat. Surprisingly, however, neither a dummy Honeyguide nor the presence of a foreign egg, either separately or in combination, was sufficient to stimulate egg rejection.

Internal incubation and early hatching in brood parasitic birds

The offspring of brood parasitic birds benefit from hatching earlier than host young. A proposed but little-known strategy to achieve this is 'internal incubation', by retaining the egg in the oviduct for an additional 24 h. To test this, we quantified the stage of embryo development at laying in four brood parasitic birds (European cuckoo, Cuculus canorus; African cuckoo, Cuculus gularis; greater honeyguide, Indicator indicator; and the cuckoo finch, Anomalospiza imberbis). For the two cuckoos and the honeyguide, all of which lay at 48 h intervals, embryos were at a relatively advanced stage at laying; but for the cuckoo finch (laying interval: 24 h) embryo stage was similar to all other passerines laying at 24 h intervals. The stage of embryo development in the two cuckoos and honeyguide was similar to that of a non-parasitic species that lay at an interval of 44-46 h, but also to the eggs of the zebra finch Taeniopygia guttata incubated artificially at body temperature immediately after laying, for a further 24 h. Comparison with the zebra finch shows that internal incubation in the two cuckoos and honeyguide advances hatching by 31 h, a figure consistent with the difference between the expected and the observed duration of incubation in the European cuckoo predicted from egg mass. Rather than being a specific adaptation to brood parasitism, internal incubation is a direct consequence of a protracted interval between ovulation (and fertilization) and laying, but because it results in early hatching may have predisposed certain species to become brood parasitic.

Egg puncturing by the brood parasitic Greater Honeyguide and potential host counteradaptations

Egg puncturing by the brood parasitic Greater Honeyguide and potential host counteradaptations

The Fallacy, Fact, and Fate of Guiding Behavior in the Greater Honeyguide

Dans le but de justifier la proposition de maintenir certaines activites humaines traditionnelles dans les reserves naturelles africaines, l'auteur s'appuie sur l'exemple de l'association ratel (Mellivora capensis) / indicateur (Indicator indicator) pour la detection d'essaim d'abeilles.Il prouve la necessaire mediation de l'homme pour le fonctionnement de ce systeme mutualiste

Honeyguides and Honey Gatherers: Interspecific Communication in a Symbiotic Relationship

In many parts of Africa, people searching for honey are led to bees' nests by the greater honeyguide (Indicator indicator Sparrman). The Boran people of Kenya claim that they can deduce the direction and the distance to the nest as well as their own arrival at the nest from the bird's flight pattern, perching height, and calls. Analyses of the behavior of guiding birds confirmed these claims.

Notes on Honeyguides in Southeast Cape Province, South Africa

Now that I am no longer living on a farm it seems advisable to collate what little data I have accumulated on honeyguides and add it to the scanty knowledge we have of these birds, in this instance the Lesser Honeyguide, Indicator minor minor, the Greater Honeyguide, Indicator indicator, and Wahlberg's Sharp-billed Honeyguide, Prodotiscus regulus regulus. The farm Gameston where these records were taken lies in the grassand bush-covered upper reaches of the Kariega River, 15 miles southwest of Grahamstown, Albany district, Southeast Cape Province, South Africa. This veld-type, known as bontebosveld, spreads over a large part of the southeast cape. Although I have known the birds for many years the written records cover a period of about five years.