the 14 types of the honey-indicators is occur 10-20 cm of big, insignificantly brown and gray colored birds with a short and powerful beak, that its main-spread-area have in Africa, in Asia only 2 types. The name of the whole family is based on an exceptional behavior, that some of its representatives developed.
Honey-indicators The birds alert to possible food-sources by steering the interest of honey-badgers or people on itself through loud reputations, fly a short route far thereupon and wait after it until one followed them. This process recurs until the birds discover a beehive, a wasp-nest or also only individual free-flying bees. Then, honey-indicators remain sitting quietly on a nearby located attendant and let the here-lured "partner" look for the nest and don't break it open to what in the situation is. Afterwards, they do themselves amicably at the lying around honeycomb-rests and insects, with what honey-indicators pick up not only maggots and dolls but also the beeswax. A bacterium, which reduces (up to individual fatty acids) the beeswax indigestible for the bird actually so far, belongs to the intestine-flora of these birds that it can be digested by the honey-indicators.
This "ads" of insect-people is a purely instinctive process, that is developed fully only with few types of this woodpecker-family. With the big or Schwarzkehl-Honiganzeiger (Indicator indicator) as well as with the Strichelstirn or shed-honey-indicator (I). variegatus. By the way, honey-indicators live from the most differently free-flying insects and their larvae. A clear "preference", however, there is u for Hautflügler like bees, wasps, hornets. ä. Honey-indicators are able to also perceive beeswax smell-like as newer examinations showed. Usually, the sense of smell is not at all with birds or only very weakly distinctive.
Brood-parasitism The other interesting behavior of the honey-indicators is its brood-parasitism. As far as is known, no type of this family itself broods but puts, as our cuckoo, the eggs in nests of many other bird-types from. The 19-20 cm big Schwarzkehl-Honiganzeiger prefers the nests of cave-breeders like beard-birds, woodpeckers, bee-gluttons, hop and shine-starlings. A bare, blind young, that carries one pointed egg-tooth each at the waiter and sub-beak, slips from the single white and thickly-stale-y egg, that measures approximately 2,4 x 1,9 cm. The upper egg-tooth is hook-shaped bent downward. Already shortly after slipping begins the young honey-indicator, with the help of this egg-tooth its "Stiefgeschwister" totzubeißen. At the end of the first life-week, the two egg-teeth fall, at this time, however, the honey-indicator is already sole nest-passenger. Probably unausgebrütete eggs of the host-birds are destroyed by the young of the honey-indicators as well provided they were not tapped inadvertently already by the parents with the deposit of the eggs.
After approximately 4 weeks, the young honey-indicators - fully befiedert - leave the nest of its host-birds and wander individually (from time to time also in small groups).
Habitat Forest and brushland-ships of Africa, with what these birds populate also quite high-situated areas, are the prevalent habitat of honey-indicators. In some areas, the honey-indicators undertake also smaller local hikes.
Further types Only 2 types, the 18 cm big Malay honey-indicators (Indicator archipelagicus) for the west and south of Thailand as well as from Malaysia, Borneo and Sumatra and the 15 cm long Gelbbürzel-Honiganzeiger (Indicator xanthonotus) from the Himalaya from Pakistan until Burma occurs outside Africa. The type Indicator is it by far the species-richest.
Into an independent type, one puts big lyre-tail-honey-indicator (Melichneutes robustus), the single type with swung tail, the 17 cm. With the other honey-indicators, the tail-feather is straight, the outer ones carry white markings mostly (in the flight showy).
Say Honey-indicators play an important role in many legends of Africa's nature-people: So one leaves behind some honey on purpose the birds when emptying a beehive in order to prevent that the honey-indicator leads the people the next time to a danger-source. By the reward, the bird should be induced to find out a beehive once again.
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