Small honey indicator
| Small honey indicator or nose strip honey indicator | ||||||||||
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Small honey indicator or nose strip honey indicator ( indicator minor ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Indicator minor | ||||||||||
| Stephens , 1815 |
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The Small Honeyguides ( Indicator minor ), also nose Streif Honeyguides called, is with a body length of 15 centimeters and weighing up to 36 grams of a medium-sized member of the family of woodpeckers that in sub-Saharan Africa is widespread. They mainly eat insects, but are also able to digest beeswax. They don't eat honey, however. They are obligatory brood parasites that allow their offspring to be raised by other bird species.
features
The males of the small honey indicator have a body length of up to 15 centimeters and a wing length of 8.2 to 9.8 centimeters. Females have the same body length, their wing length is 7.7 to 9.8 centimeters. The weight of the males is between 23 and 36.5 grams, that of the females varies from 22 to 35 grams.
There is no noticeable gender dimorphism . Males and females have a gray head and a blackish cheek stripe and a narrow whitish stripe at the base of the beak. The underside of the body is a solid gray, the back plumage is brown. The outer white control feathers are particularly noticeable in flight,
Young birds not yet sexually mature lack the cheek stripe and the stripe at the base of the beak, they also have a dark dashed throat and a grayer underside of the body than the adult birds.
Special anatomy
Small honey indicators break down beeswax into digestible fatty acids with the help of fungi and bacteria living in their intestines; They also have a well-developed sense of smell, which is otherwise untypical for birds. Beeswax is not digestible for all other bird species that do not belong to the honey indicators, as well as for most other living things. However, wax is seven times richer in calories than honey, for example.
Distribution area and habitat
The Kleine Honiganzeiger is a species of bird from Sub-Saharan Africa and occurs from Senegal and Gambia in an easterly direction to Somalia and in a southerly direction to Namibia and South Africa.
The habitat of the Kleiner Honiganzeiger is shrub savannahs and savannas with isolated trees, forest edges, gallery forests and tree-lined gardens. The altitude distribution ranges from the lowlands at sea level to altitudes of 3000 meters. However, it is less common above 1800 meters.
Reproduction
The eggs are glossy white and broadly oval. The small honey indicator only lays one egg in the host bird's nest. The breeding period varies with the respective distribution area. In South Africa the breeding season falls from September to January. In central Kenya and the east of Tanzania, however, the Kleine Honiganzeiger breeds in the months of April to August.
The Kleine Honiganzeiger is an obligatory brood parasite that uses a number of host birds. They include:
- Diadem hair beard
- Two-tone gloss star
- Diadem bearded bird
- White-eared bearded bird
- Straw-headed bearded bird
- Olive beard bird
- Mirror Bearded Bird
- Stactolaema
- Collared Bearded Bird
- Blood breast bearded bird
- Bald Bearded Bird
- Fig bearded bird
- Brown-breasted bearded bird
- Double-toothed bearded bird
- Rose-bellied bearded bird
The host birds are either cave breeders or those that breed in spherical nests. The breeding season is 11 to 12 days.
Nestlings of the little honey indicator kill their nest siblings by biting them with their hook-shaped egg tooth and pecking at them.
There have been several reports of the Collared Bearded Bird trying to defend its breeding cavity against intrusion of the Little Honey Indicator. There are similar reports from other species.
literature
- Mark Cocker, David Tipling: Birds and People. Jonathan Cape, London 2013, ISBN 978-0-2240-8174-0 .
- 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 .
Web links
- Indicator minor inthe IUCN Red List of Endangered Species 2015.3. Listed by: BirdLife International, 2012. Retrieved September 10, 2016.