Greater Honeyguide ( Indicator indicator, family: Indicatoridae)

Greater honey guide kruger national park birds The Greater Honeyguide (Latin name Indicator indicator) is described in Roberts Birds of Southern Africa, 7th Edition. This bird has a unique Roberts number of 474 and you will find a full description of this bird on page 123 also a picture of the Greater Honeyguide on page 144. The Greater Honeyguide belongs to the family of birds classified as Indicatoridae. According to the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology the Greater Honeyguide is also known by these other names: Black-throated Honeyguide.

The map of the Kruger you see on this page shows the areas (coloured orange) where this bird has been identified. The basic information was provided by the Avian Demographic Unit based at UCT and I created the maps from that information ... the green dots show the locations of the various Kruger National Park Rest Camps

The Greater Honeyguide is neither Endemic or near Endemic to the Kruger National Park. It is however a common resident

In terms of distribution of the Greater Honeyguide in the Kruger National Park you may not see it in all areas. Greater Honeyguide : see above distribution map.

Identification assistance for this avian species ...

The Greater Honeyguide is a smallish bird but somewhat larger than a house sparrow. The height of the Greater Honeyguide is about 20 cms and its weight is about 50 gms

The male and female Greater Honeyguide have the same plumage and colours

  • Head is olive.
  • Eye is brown.
  • Bill is white.
  • Throat is black.
  • Back is brown.
  • Legs are purple.

This bird has normally proportioned leg length.

Main diet items for this bird ...

The Greater Honeyguide feeds on wing mainly

Invertebrates

Breeding and nesting habits for this bird ...

The Greater Honeyguide takes on more than a single mate (it is bigamous).

The nesting habit of Greater Honeyguide is to use the nest of another bird. The surrogate family then raise the chicks. The bird lays eggs which are white in colour and number between 4 to 7

Habitat and flocking behaviour for this bird ...

The preferred habitats for Greater Honeyguide are: woodlands and grasslands

You will normally see the Greater Honeyguide by itself rather than in the company of birds of the same species.

Names of this avian species in other languages ...

Xhosa ... Intakobusi

Zulu ... iNgede/iNhlavebizelayo/uNomtsheketshe

Afrikaans ...Grootheuningwyser

German ... Groer Honiganzeiger, Schwarzkehl-Honiganzeiger

Portuguese ... Indicador-grande

French ... Grand Indicateur

Dutch ... Grote Honingspeurder

First bird in list | Previous bird viewed | Next KNP bird | Last bird in list

For in-depth birding information please refer to these authoritative avian references ...

Robert's 7th edition number ... 474

The main reference source for this data was "Roberts - Birds of Southern Africa, 7th Edition" . Other references were "Newmans Birds of the Kruger Park" by Keith Newman published circa 1980 . Names in foreign languages were obtained from the Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town website , www.fitzpatrick.uct.ac.za