Indicator indicator

Famous for its habit of leading humans to beehives – bees, their larvae, honey and wax making up the bulk of its diet – the Greater Honeyguide is one of those birds that people find very interesting. The symbiotic relationship with a mammalian creature that’s brave and strong enough to open up a beehive for it was honed over millennia and is a powerful reminder that humans are supposed to be part of the ecology and not separate from it. The call it uses when leading a human to a beehive is very different to the song it uses to communicate with others of its species. There is a superstition in the bush that, if you’re not going to help the honeyguide get its meal this time next time it will lead you straight to a dangerous predator as punishment.

Greater Honeyguides live in a wide range of habitats, from fynbos to woodland and riverine forests and even plantations of exotic trees. They are brood parasites, meaning that the female sneaks a fertilised egg into the nest of a different species of bird (and destroys any of the host’s eggs in the process) so that they can raise the chick. This usually happens from early spring to mid-summer, during which time the honeyguide female can lay as many as 21 eggs in separate nests, with almost 40 kinds of host birds recorded in southern Africa alone. The honeyguide chicks usually depart their adoptive family at about 2 months of age.

Although they’re not common the Greater Honeyguide has a wide distribution across most of South Africa and beyond our borders inhabit most of sub-Saharan Africa, with the exception of deserts and the equatorial forests. The IUCN considers it to be a species of least concern.

Female Greater Honeyguide

Greater Honeyguide male

Female Greater Honeyguide