The wild bird that recruits humans and leads them to honey
This wild bird calls humans out of their villages and leads them to hidden treasure.
Which one is REALLY true about the Greater Honeyguide?
The short version
The greater honeyguide eats beeswax but cannot open a bee nest alone, so it recruits people. It chatters at honey hunters and flits tree to tree until they follow. Hunters in Mozambique reply with a traditional trill-and-grunt call the bird recognises, which more than doubles the success rate, and they leave the wax behind as payment.
Why it's so weird
- ✓The Greater Honeyguide loves to eat beeswax but cannot break into a bee nest on its own.
- ✓The Greater Honeyguide goes and finds a person, flying in close and chattering loudly until a honey hunter follows.
- ✓The Greater Honeyguide flits from tree to tree to lead hunters all the way in to a hidden bees' nest.
- ✓The Greater Honeyguide knows the exact trill-and-grunt call that honey hunters in Mozambique have handed down for generations, and more than doubles their chance of finding a nest when they use it.
- ✓The Greater Honeyguide gets paid in wax, because the hunters take the honey and leave the beeswax behind for the bird.
You could line up about 6 of them along a 7-year-old!
The full story
This wild bird deliberately recruits humans, and then leads them to hidden treasure. Meet the greater honeyguide, a small African bird with an extraordinary partnership. It loves to eat beeswax, but it cannot break into a bee nest on its own. So it goes and finds a person. It flies in close, chattering loudly, then flits from tree to tree, waiting for the human to follow. Honey hunters in Mozambique answer it with a special call, a trill and a grunt handed down for generations. The bird knows that exact sound, and it more than doubles the chance of finding a nest. It guides them in, the hunters open the hive with smoke, take the honey, and leave the wax behind as payment. Follow for more weird animal facts.
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“The Greater Honeyguide loves to eat beeswax but cannot break into a bee nest on its own.”
“The Greater Honeyguide is the longest-lived vertebrate ever found, with one individual dated to roughly four hundred years old.”
“The Greater Honeyguide goes and finds a person, flying in close and chattering loudly until a honey hunter follows.”