Indicator indicator Greater Honeyguide Grootheuningwyser
Welgevonden Game Reserve, Aug 2009
A breeding resident. Fairly common, widespread, and found in most wooded areas of the Waterberg; much less common in the surrounding thorn savanna (72% in, 28% out; recorded in 56% of the Waterberg pentads). It is mostly calling males that are encountered, these giving away their presence by their intermittently repeated, far-carrying “vic-tor” call which they utter throughout the summer at regularly used call-sites on a high perch in a tall leafy tree; the same sites are often used in successive years. This is the only honeyguide that has the behaviour of guiding people (and Honey Badgers) to bee-hives, using a call that sounds like a match-box being shaken to catch one's attention. Parasitic, it breeds in summer, its recorded hosts in the Waterberg being Little Bee-eater and Cape Starling.
A breeding resident. Fairly common, widespread, and found in most wooded areas of the Waterberg; much less common in the surrounding thorn savanna (72% in, 28% out; recorded in 56% of the Waterberg pentads). It is mostly calling males that are encountered, these giving away their presence by their intermittently repeated, far-carrying “vic-tor” call which they utter throughout the summer at regularly used call-sites on a high perch in a tall leafy tree; the same sites are often used in successive years. This is the only honeyguide that has the behaviour of guiding people (and Honey Badgers) to bee-hives, using a call that sounds like a match-box being shaken to catch one's attention. Parasitic, it breeds in summer, its recorded hosts in the Waterberg being Little Bee-eater and Cape Starling.
Lephalale, Feb 2020
A juvenile being fed by a Cape Starling.
A juvenile being fed by a Cape Starling.