Domestic birds work for us but here’s a wild bird who chooses to work with us.

Greater honeyguides (Indicator indicator) are wild birds in Africa known for leading humans to honey.  They eat bee eggs, larvae and beeswax but often can’t get at them because the bees fight them off.  So the birds enlist our help, “Hey, humans! Work with me.”

Chattering and fluttering in front of us, honeyguides lead us to the hives where we use smoke to subdue the bees and axes to open the tree trunks where the hives are hidden.  We get the honey.  The honeyguides get the insects and wax.

This active solicitation has gone on for thousands of years.  In July we learned a new twist in the story.

Claire Spottiswoode studied greater honeyguides in Mozambique and found that the solicitation works both ways.  People have a special call that means, “Come, honeyguide! Let’s go look for honey together.” The birds arrive and lead the way.

The calls vary by region. For instance, there’s one sound in Mozambique, another in Tanzania.  Listen to the story on NPR to hear them.

“Hey honeyguide! Come work with me.”

How the birds learned our calls is still unknown.

(photo from Wikimedia Commons. Click on the image to see the original)