- Indicator minor
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Identification
An unobtrusive drab olive-brown bird with a short stubby bill & white outer tail feathers that are prominent in flight.
Distribution
Sub-Saharan Africa except for coastal West Africa, Congo Basin and desert areas in the Horn of Africa and southern Africa.
Taxonomy
Indicator minor has 6 subspecies:
- I. m. minor South Africa, south-eastern Botswana, Swaziland;
- I. m. senegalensis Senegal, Chad, Cameroon, Sudan;
- I. m. riggenbachi Cameroon, Sudan, Uganda;
- I. m. diadematus Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia;
- I. m. damarensis Angola, Namibia
- I. m. teitensis southeastern South Sudan, southeastern Ethiopia, and southern Somalia south and southwest to Angola, northeastern Namibia, Zimbabwe, and central Mozambique
Habitat
Woodland, savanna, forest edges, riverine forest, plantations, parks and wooded gardens; seldom strays far from cover.
Behaviour
This bird does not guide to bees nests but tends to catch insects in flycatcher fashion. Like the other Honeyguides it is a brood parasite of other hole & cavity nesters such as Barbets & Bee-eaters. Honeyguide chicks hatch with a pronounced hook to the bill-tip which they use to wound & kill the young of the host species.
Voice. Characteristic " hip, hip, hip" repeated up to 40 times.
References
Lepage D. 2007. Avibase. Search for Indicator minor downloaded 2 October 2007.
