Indicator indicator
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
The greater honeyguide (Indicator indicator) is a bird in the family Indicatoridae, paleotropical near passerine birds related to the woodpeckers. Its English and scientific names refer to its habit of guiding people to bee colonies. Claims that it also guides non-human animals are disputed.
The greater honeyguide is a resident breeder in sub-Saharan Africa. It lives in a variety of habitats with trees, especially dry open woodland, but not in the West African rain forest. The greater honeyguide has bold white patches on the sides of the tail, is about 20 cm (7.9 in) long and weighs about 50 g (1.8 oz). The male has a black throat, pink bill, dark grey-brown upperparts and white underparts. The wings are streaked whitish, and the shoulder patch is yellow. The female is duller, has a blackish bill, and her throat is black. Immature birds have olive-brown upperparts with a white rump, yellow throat and upper breast.
The greater honeyguide is known to guide people to the nests of wild bees. A guiding bird attracts a person's attention with wavering, chattering "'tya' notes compounded with peeps or pipes", sounds it also gives in aggression... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mombasa | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 2 | Pretoria | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 3 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia | |
| 4 | Johannesburg | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 5 | Harare | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 6 | Kampala | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 7 | Kigali | 🇷🇼 Rwanda |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Greater Honeyguide sighting in Ruaha National Park on a given day, based on 55 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 78th most-seen of the 276 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March
In that month about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Greater Honeyguide in Ruaha National Park on a given day, against about 10% in June and September, the lowest months. That is one of Ruaha National Park's wettest months, with about 140 mm of rain against almost none in June.
Between 7 and 10 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Greater Honeyguide sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 pm and 6 am: it is mostly seen at night.
2nd of 43
Of the 43 parks where we can rate Greater Honeyguide sightings, Ruaha National Park ranks 2nd at about 20%. The best odds are in Gonarezhou National Park (Zimbabwe, about 30%).
Same order: Piciformes
The closest relatives of the Greater Honeyguide that you can see in Ruaha National Park (order Piciformes, Woodpeckers and Allies) are D'Arnaud's Barbet (about 40%), Nubian Woodpecker (about 40%) and Cardinal Woodpecker (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Greater Honeyguide is recorded against all the birds logged in Ruaha National Park (55 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
