Honeyguide

Honey-guide (Indicator), any bird of the genus Indicator, constituting the family Indicatoridee, with affinities to the woodpeckers and barbets

There are eleven species (some of them parasitic) from the Oriental and Ethiopian regions. They are of sober plumage, feeding on bees and sometimes on small birds. Their popular and generic names are due to the belief that they guide men to the nests of wild bees by a peculiar cry. The evidence for this belief seems conclusive.