Lesser Honeyguide ( Indicator minor, family: Indicatoridae)

lesser honey guide kruger national park birds The Lesser Honeyguide (Latin name Indicator minor) is described in Roberts Birds of Southern Africa, 7th Edition. This bird has a unique Roberts number of 476 and you will find a full description of this bird on page 124 also a picture of the Lesser Honeyguide on page 144. The Lesser Honeyguide belongs to the family of birds classified as Indicatoridae.

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

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

The Lesser Honeyguide.

Identification assistance for this avian species ...

One of the first indicators to take note of when trying to identify a bird is it relative size. For example how big is the bird compared to a well known familiar bird. The Lesser Honeyguide is a small bird about the size of a house sparrow. Do not take this relative indicator as anything other than a rough easy to remember indicator. It is not a accurate visualization. The height of the Lesser Honeyguide is about 15 cms and its weight is about 28 gms

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

  • Head is grey.
  • Eye is brown.
  • Bill is black.
  • Throat is grey.
  • Back is yellow, green.
  • Legs are olive.

This bird has normally proportioned leg length.

Main diet items for this bird ...

The Lesser Honeyguide feeds on wing mainly

Invertebrates

Breeding and nesting habits for this bird ...

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

The nesting habit of Lesser 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 2 to 7

Habitat and flocking behaviour for this bird ...

The preferred habitats for Lesser Honeyguide are: woodlands and grasslands

You will normally see the Lesser 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 ... iNhlava

Afrikaans ...Kleinheuningwyser

German ... Kleiner Honiganzeiger

Portuguese ... Indicador-pequeno

French ... Petit Indicateur

Dutch ... Kleine Honingspeurder

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

Robert's 7th edition number ... 476

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