PARASITIC HONEYGUIDES

[darren.naish@port.ac.uk]

On nest parasitism in theropods, Matt Troutman wrote..

> ( there is an African cuckoo that does the 
> same of course and has a special "tooth" on its bill to kill its 
> nest-mates when it is a chick; I forget its name ). 

This seems to be a reference to Honeyguides (Indicatoridae) which are 
nest parasites with parasitic juveniles. I have seen juvenile 
indicatorids - though they are altricial, with ugly pink skin, 
bulbous closed eyes and barb-less wings, they are vicious little 
predatory creatures with evil hooked beaks and trenchant recurved 
pedal claws. Oddly, they also have rugose, thickened skin patches on 
the caudal angle of their ankle - presumably this aids them in 
sitting upright, I suppose so they can attack other chicks all the 
better. They are aggressive predators that kill host chicks by 
pecking and tearing with their hooked beaks.

Indicatorids are a modest radiation of African perching birds with 
zygodactyl feet: traditionally, they are assigned to the Piciformes 
(woodpeckers and allies). They are famous for alerting Ratels 
(_Mellivora_ - a great big African weasel: not a meline (=mephitine)) 
and humans to the whereabouts of bee nests. Within the last 100, 000 
years, _Mellivora_ got out of Africa and spread east toward India... 
why didn't indicatorids do the same? I don't know.

"I'm not arrogant - I'm just always right!"

DARREN NAISH
darren.naish@port.ac.uk