General Information

The honey guide or black-throated indicator bird guides animals and people such as the honey badger and pygmies to bee's nests. Once there, the guided break open the nest and take out the honey. The bird then feeds on the beeswax. 

Physical Description

Most honey guides are dull colored, though a few have bright yellow in their plumage. All have light outer tail feathers that are white.

Diet

This bird lives entirely off of the larvae of bees and their honey. It will eat the beeswax in beehives when other animals or humans destroy the nest. Also, it will eat the waxy secretions of scale insects, wax worms, and other crawling insects. Its stomach has an intestinal bacterium with the ability to break down the substance. 

Habitat

They have an old world tropical distribution with the greatest number of species in Africa (15) and two in Asia. The bird is found in Africa and in the rainforests of South America.

Reproduction

The honey guide is a brood parasite. It finds nests of other birds, breaks their eggs, and then lays its own in replacement. They lay their eggs in a series of about five to seven days. Most favor hole-nesting species such as the barbet or woodpecker. Because of their hooked beak, they are able to puncture the egg and kill the young with repeated lacerations if not one fatal stab.