Home > Honeyguide

Honeyguides ( family Indicatoridae) are near passerine birds of the order Piciformes. They have an Old World tropical distribution, with the greatest number of species in Africa and a few in Asia.

These dull coloured birds, related to the barbets, are insect-eaters, often feeding on bees and wasps, together with their honey and wax. Their English and scientific names both refer to the habit of some species of leading humans or suitable large mammals, such as the ratel or "honey badger," to bees' nests. When the larger species breaks into the nest, the birds will take their share too.

Honeyguides are brood parasiteBrood parasite is a term specifically applied to birds or insects that leave their eggs in the nests of other birds or insects to be raised. This relieves the parent parasites from the investment of rearing young, enabling them to feed only themselves ands, laying their eggs in the nests of various other birds; barbetThis article is about the Barbet family of birds. For the Barbet dog breed see Barbet (dog Barbet : Animalia : Chordata : Aves : Piciformes : Capitonidae Genera Psilopogon Megalaima Calorhamphus Gymnobucco Stactolaema Pogoniulus Buccanodon Tricholaema Lybs are a frequent choice.

Classification

Indicatoridae belongs to the orderOrder is one of the levels of scientific classification of organisms. Orders are grouped into classes and themselves contain families. The standard groupings of taxonomy from most general to most specific are: Domain Kingdom Phylum (animals); Division (pl Piciformes as shown here.

• Order Piciformes
  • Family Picidae, ( woodpeckerMany, see text. Woodpeckers are near passerine birds of the order Piciformes. They have a world-wide distribution with many species, usually numbered at 218 (including the Ivory-billed). Some woodpeckers and wrynecks in the order Piciformes have zygodactys, piculetPiculets : Animalia : Chordata : Aves : Piciformes Picidae Genera Picumnus Sasia Nesoctites The piculets are a distinctive group of small woodpeckers which occur mainly in tropical South America, with just three Asian and one African species elsewhere.s, and wryneckWrynecks : Animalia : Chordata : Aves : Piciformes : Picidae Jynx Species See text. The wrynecks are a small but distinctive group of small Old World woodpeckers. Like the true woodpeckers, wrynecks have large heads, long tongues which they use to extracts)
  • Family Capitonidae, ( barbets)
  • Family Ramphastidae, ( toucans)
  • Family Indicatoridae, (honeyguides)
  • Family Galbulidae, ( jacamars)
  • Family Bucconidae, ( puffbirds etc)

The last two families are sometimes separated as the order Galbuliformes.

Seventeen species in three genera compose the Indicatoridae:

• Family Indicatoridae
  • Genus Indicator
    • Spotted Honeyguide , Indicator maculatus
    • Scaly-throated Honeyguide , Indicator variegatus
    • Greater Honeyguide, Indicator indicator
    • Malaysian Honeyguide , Indicator archipelagicus
    • Lesser Honeyguide , Indicator minor
    • Thick-billed Honeyguide , Indicator conirostris
    • Willcock's Honeyguide , Indicator willcocksi
    • Least Honeyguide , Indicator exilis
    • Dwarf Honeyguide , Indicator pumilio
    • Pallid Honeyguide , Indicator meliphilus
    • Yellow-rumped Honeyguide , Indicator xanthonotus
  • Genus Melichneutes
    • Lyre-tailed Honeyguide , Melichneutes robustus
    • Yellow-footed Honeyguide , Melignomon eisentrauti
    • Zenker's Honeyguide , Melignomon zenkeri
  • Genus Prodotiscus
    • Cassin's Honeyguide , Prodotiscus insignis
    • Green-backed Honeyguide , Prodotiscus zambesiae
    • Wahlberg's Honeyguide , Prodotiscus regulus