Honey indicator

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Honey indicator
Narrow-beak honey indicator (Prodotiscus regulus)

Narrow-beak honey indicator ( Prodotiscus regulus )

Systematics
Sub-stem : Vertebrates (vertebrata)
Class : Birds (aves)
Order : Woodpecker birds (Piciformes)
Subordination : Specht-like (Picoidea)
Family : Honey indicator
Scientific name
Indicatoridae
Swainson , 1837
Small honey indicator
Large honey indicator

The honey indicators (Indicatoridae) are a family in the order of the woodpecker birds (Piciformes).

To them, if we include 17 bird species in four genera , of which 15 in Africa of the Sahara are located south. The main area of ​​distribution is West Africa and the upper reaches of the Congo . Two species inhabit northern India and Southeast Asia . Their habitat are forest and bush landscapes. Honey indicators feed primarily on insects, but one of the distinguishing features of the family is that they all also eat beeswax.

Appearance and way of life

When fully grown, honey indicators are between 10 and 20 centimeters long and weigh between 10 and 55 grams. The beak is short and strong in most species. Only in the three Prodotiscus species is it thin and tapering, similar to a flycatcher . The plumage is inconspicuous and of a brownish, grayish or olive color.

All species also eat beeswax in addition to insects. This comes either from still inhabited or abandoned bee nests or from the body secretions of other insects. Honey indicators are able to digest beeswax because specialized bacteria live in their intestines. They don't eat honey, however.

View of honey

These birds get their name from an unusual behavior that can be observed in both the small and the large honey indicator: This behavior has also been described for the scale honey indicator ( Indicator variegatus ). Representatives of these species roam alone or in small groups, drawing the attention of a person or a honey badger by shouting loudly. Then they fly short distances and wait for you to follow them. If the honey indicator has led to a beehive , it waits until its "partner" has found it and broken open, which it is not able to do itself. The honey indicator then eats the remaining insects and honeycomb remains. Whether the honey guide other than humans with other animal species (eg. As honey badger , but not with chimpanzees ) cooperates , is just as unclear as the question of whether all the species show this behavior. The evolutionary biologist Josef H. Reichholf argues for the badger as a forerunner. Little is known about the behavior of many types of honey indicators.

The mutualism between humans and the Great Honey Gauge is particularly well documented for Kenya, where members of the Borana and Hadzabe can find honey by following the Great Honey Gauge. The honey hunters have developed a special whistle to attract large honey indicators. If a large honey indicator hears this and knows the location of a nest, it approaches the person and shows a noticeably restless flight behavior in which it emits a penetrating tirr-tirr . Both humans and the Großer Honiganzeiger benefit from the cooperation. Honey-gathering Borana need an average of nine hours to find a bee's nest without the assistance of the Large Honey Indicator. With the help of the bird, the time drops to an average of three hours. In 96% of the cases examined, the bee's nest was not accessible to the Great Honey Indicator without human support - for example because it was in a knothole that first had to be broken open with tools.

Brood Parasitism

The breeding behavior of eleven types of the honey indicator has been examined in more detail and all of these eleven species practice breeding parasitism , similar to the cuckoo native to Europe . A female lays around 20 eggs each year in the nests of cave breeders. Cave-brooding woodpeckers , bee-eaters , tree hops , starlings and kingfishers are parasitized . Only the Prodotiscus species also use host birds such as flycatchers, swirls and spectacled birds that build open nests.

The females of the brood parasitic honey indicators lay one egg per host nest. The female often picks the eggs beforehand or removes one or more eggs from the host bird's clutch. The eggs are white, similar to those of the cave-breeding host birds. NB Davies suspects that this is less an adaptation to the host birds, but rather an indication that the honey indicators were originally also cave breeders.

After hatching, the young honey indicator - at this point still naked and blind - kills the other nest inhabitants with its hook-shaped egg tooth. It leaves the nest after about four weeks.

Genera and species

literature

  • NB Davies: Cuckoos, Cowbirds and Other Cheats . T & AD Poyser, London 2000, ISBN 0-85661-135-2 .
  • Paul A. Johnsgard: The Avian Brood Parasites - Deception at the Nest . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1997, ISBN 0-19-511042-0 .
  • Short, Lester & Jennifer Horne (2002): Family Indicatoridae (Honeyguides). In: Josep del Hoyo , Andrew Elliott, Jordi Sargatal (eds.): Handbook of the Birds of the World: Jacamars to Woodpeckers. Volume 7, Lynx Edicions.

Web links

Commons : Honey Indicator  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Johnsgard: The Avian Brood Parasites - Deception at the Nest . P. 116.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Davies: Cuckoos, Cowbirds and Other Cheats. P. 20.
  3. ^ Gordon A. Ranger: On three species of honey-guide; the greater; (Indicator indicator) the lesser (Indicator minor) and the scaly-throated (Indicator variegatus). In: Ostrich , Volume 26, No. 2, 1955, pp. 70-87.
  4. ↑ Alex Hooper: Mutualism between man and honeyguide. In: Juliet Clutton-Brock (Ed.): The Walking Larder. Patterns of Domestication, Pastoralism, and Predation. Routledge, 2014, Chapter 30, p. 347, ISBN 1-317-59838-5 .
  5. ↑ Kate Wong: The first cookout. In: Scientific American , 309, No. 3, 2013, pp. 66-69.
  6. ↑ The Enigma of the Incarnation. The origin of man in the interplay of nature. dtv, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-423-30341-7 , p. 228
  7. ↑ a b H. A. Isack, H.-U. Reyer: Honeyguides and honey gatherers: Interspecific communication in a symbolic relationship. In: Science , Volume 243, No. 4896, March 10, 1989, pp. 1343-1346, doi: 10.1126 / science.243.4896.1343 .
  8. ↑ Seleman Shadrack: Hunter-gatherers' coping strategies on climate change in Iramba and Mbulu districts, Tanzania. Diss. Sokoine University of Agriculture, 2011.
  9. ↑ Frank W. Marlowe, J. Colette Berbesque, Brian Wood, Alyssa Crittenden, Claire Porter, Audax Mabulla: Honey, Hadza, hunter-gatherers, and human evolution. In: Journal of Human Evolution , 71, 2014, pp. 119–128, doi: 10.1016 / j.jhevol.2014.03.006 .
  10. ↑ a b Davies: Cuckoos, Cowbirds and Other Cheats. P. 21.
  11. ^ R. Dawkins: The Selfish Gene 1976, p. 133 (2006 edition, ISBN 978-0-19-929114-4 ).