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An unobtrusive drab olive-brown bird with a short stubby bill & white outer tail feathers that are prominent in flight. | An unobtrusive drab olive-brown bird with a short stubby bill & white outer tail feathers that are prominent in flight. | ||
==Distribution== | ==Distribution== | ||
| − | Sub-Saharan [[Africa]]. | + | Sub-Saharan [[Africa]] except for coastal West Africa, Congo Basin and desert areas in the Horn of Africa and southern Africa. |
| + | |||
==Taxonomy== | ==Taxonomy== | ||
''Indicator minor'' has 6 subspecies: | ''Indicator minor'' has 6 subspecies: | ||
Revision as of 14:46, 9 August 2010
- Indicator minor
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; and
- I. m. teitensis Democratic Rep. of Congo, Angola, Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and lowlands of eastern South Africa.
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.
