Indicator (genus)
Indicator is a genus of birds in the honeyguide family Indicatoridae. The name refers to the behaviour of some species, notably the greater honeyguide, which guide humans to bee colonies so that they can share in the spoils of wax and insects when the nest is broken into.
Indicator honeyguides are brood parasites which lay eggs in a nest of another species, in a series of about five during five to seven days. Most favour hole-nesting species, often the related barbets and woodpeckers. Nestlings have been known to physically eject their host's chicks from the nest, and they have hooks on their beaks with which they puncture the hosts' eggs or kill the nestlings, by repeated lacerations if not a fatal stab.
Taxonomy
The genus Indicator was introduced in 1815 by the English naturalist James Francis Stephens with the type species, by tautonymy, as Indicator sparrmanii Stephens, a junior synonym of Cuculus indicator Sparrman, the greater honeyguide. The genus name is from Latin indicator, indicatoris meaning "guide" or "one that points out".Species
The genus contains ten species:| Image | Scientific name | Common name | Distribution |
| Indicator maculatus | Spotted honeyguide | Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Togo, and Uganda. | |
| Indicator variegatus | Scaly-throated honeyguide | Angola, Burundi, DRC, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. | |
| Indicator indicator | Greater honeyguide | sub-Saharan Africa | |
| Indicator archipelagicus | Malaysian honeyguide | western Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo and the island of Sumatra. | |
| Indicator minor | Lesser honeyguide | Widely distributed across sub-Saharan Africa | |
| Indicator willcocksi | Willcocks's honeyguide | Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Uganda. | |
| Indicator exilis | Least honeyguide | Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, and Zambia. | |
| Indicator pumilio | Dwarf honeyguide | Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, and possibly Burundi. | |
| Indicator meliphilus | Pallid honeyguide | Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. | |
| Indicator xanthonotus | Yellow-rumped honeyguide | Nepal, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Bhutan |