Honeyguide

A bird in the family Indicatoridae, known for feeding on beeswax and, in some species, guiding people or other animals to bee nests.

Greater honeyguide: A widespread African honeyguide species that leads people to wild bee nests and eats wax from opened nests. It is the best-studied species for human-guided honey hunting.
Indicatoridae: A family of African and Asian birds that includes honeyguides and woodpeckers’ relatives. It is the taxonomic family to which every honeyguide belongs.
Indicator indicator: The scientific name of the greater honeyguide, a species found across much of sub-Saharan Africa. Its formal name appears in early scientific accounts of human-guiding honeyguides.
Yao people: An ethnic group in southeastern Africa, some communities of which practice honey hunting with greater honeyguides. Yao honey hunters provide a documented example of cooperation with guiding birds.
Honeyguide–human mutualism: A cooperative relationship in which honeyguides lead people to bee nests and gain access to wax. Researchers debate how often both partners benefit and how reliably the interaction occurs.
Honey hunting: The practice of locating and harvesting wild bee nests for honey, brood, or wax. People open nests that honeyguides lead them to, leaving wax for the birds.
Beeswax: A wax produced by honey bees, used to build the cells of their combs. Honeyguides digest wax from bee nests, an unusual food source for birds.
Carl Linnaeus: A Swedish naturalist who established the binomial system of naming species. Linnaeus named the greater honeyguide as a species in the eighteenth century.
Hadza people: An Indigenous community in Tanzania whose traditional livelihoods include hunting and gathering. Hadza honey hunters have been studied for their interactions with greater honeyguides.
Honeyguide–honey badger interaction: A proposed association in which honeyguides lead honey badgers to bee nests. Whether honeyguides guide honey badgers remains disputed and lacks strong evidence.

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