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Honeyguide
Honeyguides (family Indicatoridae) are near passerine birds in the order Piciformes. They are also known as indicator birds, or honey birds, although the latter term is also used more narrowly to refer to species of the genus '' Prodotiscus''. They have an Old World tropical distribution, with the greatest number of species in Africa and two in Asia. These birds are best known for their interaction with humans. Honeyguides are noted and named for one or two species that will deliberately lead humans (but, contrary to popular claims, not honey badgers) directly to bee colonies, so that they can feast on the grubs and beeswax that are left behind. Description Most honeyguides are dull-colored, though some have bright yellow coloring in the plumage. All have light outer tail feathers, which are white in all the African species. The smallest species by body mass appears to be the green-backed honeyguide, at an average of , and by length appears to be the Cassin's honeyguide, at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greater Honeyguide
The greater honeyguide (''Indicator indicator'') is a bird in the family Indicatoridae, paleotropical near passerine birds related to the woodpeckers. Its English and scientific names refer to its habit of guiding people to bee colonies. Claims that it also guides non-human animals are disputed. The greater honeyguide is a resident breeder in sub-Saharan Africa. It is found in a variety of habitats that have trees, especially dry open woodland, but not in the West African jungle. Description The greater honeyguide is about 20 cm long and weighs about 50 g. Like all African honeyguides, it has bold white patches on the sides of the tail. The male has dark grey-brown upperparts and white underparts, with a black throat. The wings are streaked whitish, and there is a yellow shoulder patch. The bill is pink. The female is duller and lacks the black throat. Her bill is blackish. Immature birds are very distinctive, having olive-brown upperparts with a white rump and yellow th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greater Honeyguide
The greater honeyguide (''Indicator indicator'') is a bird in the family Indicatoridae, paleotropical near passerine birds related to the woodpeckers. Its English and scientific names refer to its habit of guiding people to bee colonies. Claims that it also guides non-human animals are disputed. The greater honeyguide is a resident breeder in sub-Saharan Africa. It is found in a variety of habitats that have trees, especially dry open woodland, but not in the West African jungle. Description The greater honeyguide is about 20 cm long and weighs about 50 g. Like all African honeyguides, it has bold white patches on the sides of the tail. The male has dark grey-brown upperparts and white underparts, with a black throat. The wings are streaked whitish, and there is a yellow shoulder patch. The bill is pink. The female is duller and lacks the black throat. Her bill is blackish. Immature birds are very distinctive, having olive-brown upperparts with a white rump and yellow th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indicator (genus)
''Indicator'' is a genus of near passerine birds in the honeyguide family. The name refers to the behaviour of some species, notably the greater honeyguide, which guide humans to bee colonies so that they can share in the spoils of wax and insects when the nest is broken into. ''Indicator'' honeyguides are brood parasites which lay eggs in a nest of another species, in a series of about five during five to seven days. Most favour hole-nesting species, often the related barbets and woodpecker Woodpeckers are part of the bird family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar, and the extreme polar regions. ...s. Nestlings have been known to physically eject their host's chicks from the nest, and they have hooks on their beaks with which they puncture the hosts' eggs or kill the nestlings, by repeated lacerations if not a fatal stab. Species Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scaly-throated Honeyguide
The scaly-throated honeyguide (''Indicator variegatus'') is a species of bird in the family Indicatoridae. Range thumb , left , 200px , Dorsal view, Arabuko-Sokoke Forest, coastal Kenya It is found in Angola, Burundi, DRC, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and .... Habitat Scaly-throated honeyguides are found in dense woodland, thickets, and forest, usually only identifiable by their high-pitched, trill-like ascending call. Regarding size, they are 18–19 cm in length, weighing 34–55 g and rarely up to 61 g References External links Scaly-throated honeyguide species text in ''The Atlas of Southern African Birds'' ''ADW'' Myster ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Green-backed Honeyguide
The green-backed honeybird (''Prodotiscus zambesiae''), also known as the eastern green-backed honeyguide, green-backed honeyguide and slender-billed honeyguide, is a species of bird in the family Indicatoridae. Range It is found in Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and .... References External links * (Slender-billed honeyguide = ) Green-backed honeyguide Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds green-backed honeybird Birds of Southern Africa Birds of East Africa green-backed honeybird Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Piciformes-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prodotiscus
Honeybirds are birds in the genus ''Prodotiscus'' of the honeyguide family. They are confined to sub-Saharan Africa. References - Honeybird - A guide by J Ian L. Gong Description They are all drab coloured birds, with grey or grey-green upperparts, and grey to whitish-grey underparts. They are among the smallest members of the honeyguide family. They have slender bills compared to other members of the family. Habits Unlike other honeyguides they do not feed on beeswax. They help in the pollination of plants like '' Strelitzia'', '' Callistemon'' (bottle brush), ''Bombax'', '' Butea monosperma'' and coral trees (see: ornithophily). They parasitise nests of cisticolas, sunbird Sunbirds and spiderhunters make up the family Nectariniidae of passerine birds. They are small, slender passerines from the Old World, usually with downward-curved bills. Many are brightly coloured, often with iridescent feathers, particularly ...s and other dome-nesting bird species. Species There ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lyre-tailed Honeyguide
The lyre-tailed honeyguide (''Melichneutes robustus'') is a species of bird in the family Indicatoridae. It is monotypic within the genus ''Melichneutes''.F. Gill, M. Wright D. & Donsker (2013) IOC World Bird Names (version 3.3)/ref> It is found in the African tropical rainforest : Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Nigeria, Uganda and west of the Dahomey Gap in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast and Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To .... References External links Image at ADW lyre-tailed honeyguide Birds of the African tropical rainforest lyre-tailed honeyguide lyre-tailed honeyguide Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Piciformes-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brood Parasite
Brood parasites are animals that rely on others to raise their young. The strategy appears among birds, insects and fish. The brood parasite manipulates a host, either of the same or of another species, to raise its young as if it were its own, usually using egg mimicry, with eggs that resemble the host's. The evolutionary strategy relieves the parasitic parents from the investment of rearing young. This benefit comes at the cost of provoking an evolutionary arms race between parasite and host as they coevolve: many hosts have developed strong defenses against brood parasitism, such as recognizing and ejecting parasitic eggs, or abandoning parasitized nests and starting over. It is less obvious why most hosts do care for parasite nestlings, given that for example cuckoo chicks differ markedly from host chicks in size and appearance. One explanation, the mafia hypothesis, proposes that parasitic adults retaliate by destroying host nests where rejection has occurred; there is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piciformes
Nine families of largely arboreal birds make up the order Piciformes , the best-known of them being the Picidae, which includes the woodpeckers and close relatives. The Piciformes contain about 71 living genera with a little over 450 species, of which the Picidae (woodpeckers and relatives) make up about half. In general, the Piciformes are insectivorous, although the barbets and toucans mostly eat fruit and the honeyguides are unique among birds in being able to digest beeswax (although insects make up the bulk of their diet). Nearly all Piciformes have parrot-like zygodactyl feet—two toes forward and two back, an arrangement that has obvious advantages for birds that spend much of their time on tree trunks. An exception are a few species of three-toed woodpeckers. The jacamars aside, Piciformes do not have down feathers at any age, only true feathers. They range in size from the rufous piculet at 8 centimetres in length, and weighing 7 grams, to the toco toucan, at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beeswax
Beeswax (''cera alba'') is a natural wax produced by honey bees of the genus ''Apis''. The wax is formed into scales by eight wax-producing glands in the abdominal segments of worker bees, which discard it in or at the hive. The hive workers collect and use it to form cells for honey storage and larval and pupal protection within the beehive. Chemically, beeswax consists mainly of esters of fatty acids and various long-chain alcohols. Beeswax has been used since prehistory as the first plastic, as a lubricant and waterproofing agent, in lost wax casting of metals and glass, as a polish for wood and leather, for making candles, as an ingredient in cosmetics and as an artistic medium in encaustic painting. Beeswax is edible, having similarly negligible toxicity to plant waxes, and is approved for food use in most countries and in the European Union under the E number E901. Production The beeswax is formed by worker bees, which secrete it from eight wax-producing mirror glan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brown-backed Honeybird
The brown-backed honeybird (''Prodotiscus regulus''), also known as Wahlberg's honeybird, Wahlberg's honeyguide and sharp-billed honeyguide, is a species of bird in the family Indicatoridae. This bird is named after the Swedish naturalist Johan August Wahlberg. Range It is found in Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Central African Republic, DRC, Ivory Coast, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and .... References External links * (Sharp-billed Honeyguide =) Brown-backed Honeyguide Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds brown-backed honeybird brown-backed honeybird Taxonomy articles creat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wahlberg's Honeyguide (Prodotiscus Regulus) - Juvenile Fed By Host Parent Rock-loving Cisticola
The brown-backed honeybird (''Prodotiscus regulus''), also known as Wahlberg's honeybird, Wahlberg's honeyguide and sharp-billed honeyguide, is a species of bird in the family Indicatoridae. This bird is named after the Swedish naturalist Johan August Wahlberg. Range It is found in Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Central African Republic, DRC, Ivory Coast, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ..., Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. References External links * (Sharp-billed Honeyguide =) Brown-backed Honeyguide Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds Prodotiscus, brown-backed honeybird Birds described in 1850, brown-bac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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