Africa Wild Bird Book

[Dewi]

470. Yellow-fronted Tinkerbird Pogoniulus chrysoconus (Geelblestinker)
Order: Piciformes. Family: Lybiidae

© BluTuna
Marakele National Park

Description
11.5 cm. Small barbet with golden-yellow or deep orange forecrown, black-and-white streaked upperparts and head-sides, and lemon-yellow underparts. Rump and uppertail-coverts pale yellow. Iris dark brown; bill black; legs and feet brown.
Juvenile has a black forecrown.
Similar species: similar to Redfronted Tinker Barbet, but lacks golden wingpatch.

Distribution
The Yellow-fronted Tinkerbird is widespread in sub-Saharan Africa, largely absent from the DRC. Within southern Africa it occupies north-eastern Namibia (including the Caprivi Strip), northern and south-eastern Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and north-eastern South Africa.



Habitat
It generally prefers broad-leaved woodland, especially with miombo (Brachystegia) and mistletoes (incl. Tapinthus, Erianthemum, and Viscum), avoiding evergreen forest.

Diet
It feeds mainly on fruit, especially mistletoe fruits, a tree which largely relies on it to disperse seeds. It takes also insects and forages like warbler in vegetation, actively darting at insects and gleaning from foliage.

Breeding
Both sexes excavate the nest, which is usually a hole dug into a dead branch which is at least 10 cm wide. The breeding pair are sometimes displaced by Tricholaema leucomelas (Acacia Pied Barbet), who then enlarge the cavity to use as a nest. Egg-laying season is from July to February, peaking from September to October in Zimbabwe and from October to March in South Africa. The female lays 2-4 white eggs, which are incubated by both sexes. The chicks are cared for by both parents, calling persistently for food.

Call
An unbroken rhythm of tonk-tonk-tonk-tonk-tonk-tonk; also high-pitched musical trill trroo, trroo, trroo; aggressive kss kss.

Status
Common resident.

[Dewi]

470. Yellow-fronted Tinkerbird Pogoniulus chrysoconus

© BluTuna
Marakele National Park

Links:
Species text Sabap1
Sabap2
BirdInfo: Tinkerbirds – mistletoe dispersers
Toucans, Barbets, and Honeyguides: Ramphastidae, Capitonidae and Indicatoridae. Lester Short, Jennifer F. M. Horne
Ian Sinclair. SASOL VOELS VAN SUIDER AFRICA (3de UIT)

[Toko]

464. Black-collared Barbet Lybius torquatus (Rooikophoutkapper)
Order: Piciformes. Family: Lybiidae


Hluhluwe

Description
28 cm. A large Barbet with a large black bill. Head and throat are red with a black ring or collar. Shade of red varies from bright scarlet to salmon pink. Rare xanthochroic (yellow replaces red) form occurs. Brown back and creamy-white underparts. Bills, legs and feet are black; eyes are red. Males and females are similar.
Immature lacks the red face, has a brown throat and face, streaked with red and orange.

Distribution
One of the most common barbets in Africa, occurring from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Kenya and southern Africa. Within southern Africa it is present in northern Namibia, northern and eastern Botswana, Mozambique and the eastern half of South Africa.



Habitat
Forest, woodland, savanna and gardens. It generally prefers broad-leaved woodland with trees such as miombo (Brachystegia) and Mopane (Colophospermum mopane), grassland and suburban gardens.

Diet
It feeds mainly on fruit, especially figs (Ficus), supplemented with insects and nectar.

Breeding
Black-collared barbets are monogamous and nest in holes (diameter usually 45-55 mm) in trees, usually in the trunk of the tree a few metres above the ground. Both sexes excavate the nest. The nests may be used for several years. Egg-laying season is from September-February in South Africa and from August-April in Zimbabwe. The female lays a clutch of between two and five white eggs that are incubated by both sexes for roughly 18 days. The chicks stay in the nest for roughly 33-36 days, and are fed fruit insects by both parents.
Parasitised by Lesser Honeyguide, also to some extent by Greater Honeyguide.

Call
Too-puddly, too-puddly, too-puddly, their call is a loud duet performed by the male and female, who alternate the notes in a well synchronized rendition, often perched side by side and bobbing up and down as they call. Listen to Bird Call.

Status
Common resident. Usually in pairs.

[Toko]

464. Black-collared Barbet Lybius torquatus (Rooikophoutkapper)


Hluhluwe

© Dewi

© Amoli
Kruger National Park

© Hawkeyes

© leachy
Kruger National Park, Mlondozi picnic site

Links:
Species text Sabap1
Sabap2

[Lisbeth]

473. Crested Barbet Trachyphonus vaillantii (Kuifkophoutkapper)
Order: Piciformes. Family: Lybiidae

Crested Barbet.jpg (37.08 KiB) Viewed 933 times

Description
Length 23-24 cm; weight 58-87 g.
Adult male: Head crested; back, tail and broad breastband black, spotted and scalloped with white; head and face yellow, scaled with red; crest and nape black and rump red; belly yellow, broadly streaked red. Bill pale with dark tip, eyes red, legs and feet grey-black.
Adult female: Similar to the male, but has less red in the plumage, and on the belly there is more black on yellow parts.
Immature: Duller than adult; lacks white spots in collar; bill yellow with dusky central band; eye grey-brown.

Distribution
Occurs from Angola and Zambia south to southern Africa. Here it is common in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique and the Free State Province to Limpopo Province.

Habitat
Woodland, savanna, riverine forests and suburban gardens.

Diet
It is omnivorous, eating largely insects when fruit is scarce. It forages for insects mostly on the ground, sometimes flying into foliage to eat fruit.

Breeding
Both sexes excavate the nest, which consists of a chamber dug into the underside of a dead branch. It is defended vigorously against other hole-nesting birds, sometimes evicting enemy birds out of their active nests! Egg-laying season is year-long, peaking from September-December. It lays 2-5, usually 3-4 eggs at 24 hour intervals. Incubation is done by both sexes, for about 17 days. The female incubates during the night, with the male doing most of the day. The chicks are fed exclusively insects, and stay in the nest for about 31 days. The nest entrance is enlarged as they get older.

Call
The Crested Barbet’s loud and sustained trilling tr-r-r-r-r-r-r-r is often heard before the bird itself is sighted. Both the males and females sing, and on occasion this rather unmusical song takes the form of a duet. Listen to Bird Call.

Status
Common resident.

[Lisbeth]

473. Crested Barbet Trachyphonus vaillantii

© Peter Betts

© PRWIN
Kruger National Park

© Amoli

© Amoli

© pooky
Kruger National Park, Satara

Links:
Species text Sabap1: http://sabap2.adu.org.za/docs/sabap1/473.pdf
Sabap2: http://sabap2.adu.org.za/spp_summary.ph ... &section=3
Oiseaux net
Lester Short, Jennifer F. M. Horne: Toucans, Barbets, and Honeyguides: Ramphastidae, Capitonidae and Indicatoridae
Africa Wild: Living next door to Sally

[Toko]

Honeyguides (family Indicatoridae) are near passerine bird species of the order Piciformes. There are 4 genera, 17 species and 33 taxa. Indicatoridae is commonly divided into two ‘tribes’; the ‘thin-billed Prodotiscinae (including: Prodotiscus, and two species of Melignomon) and the thick-billed Indicatorinae which includes the typical (Indicator genus and Melichneutes).
They have an Old World tropical distribution, with the greatest number of species in Africa and two in Asia. These birds are best known for their interaction with humans. Honeyguides are noted and named for one or two species that will deliberately lead humans directly to bee colonies, so that they can feast on the grubs and beeswax that are left behind.
Honeyguides are small to small-medium arboreal birds described as having drab brownish and greenish plumage with distinct white outer-tail markings. They have small heads with short bills and the nostrils raised in many species. They have been described as passerine-like birds although the share some characteristics of other picids (especially the barbets). Although honeyguides have very thick skin (probably to protect them from bee stings) they are not immune to the toxin. Dead honeyguides have been found under bee’s nests with as many as 300 stings, especially around the eyes.
They are among the few birds that feed regularly on wax - beeswax in most species, and presumably the waxy secretions of scale insects in the genus Prodotiscus and to a lesser extent in the smaller species of Indicator. They also feed on waxworms which are the larvae of the waxmoth Galleria mellonella, on bee colonies, and on flying and crawling insects, spiders, and occasional fruits. Many species join mixed-species feeding flocks.
Honeyguides are named for a remarkable habit seen in one or two species: they guide humans to bee colonies. Once the hive is open and the honey is taken, the bird feeds on the remaining wax and larvae. This behavior is well studied in the Greater Honeyguide; some authorities state that it also occurs in the Scaly-throated Honeyguide, while others disagree. Despite popular belief, there is no evidence that honeyguides guide the honey badger. It has been written, in fable more than in natural histories that the honeyguide and the ratel or ‘honey badger’ (Mellivora capensis) has a relationship in which the bird coerces the mammal to follow it to a bees nest where the ratel tears open the nest to eat the honey and the honeyguide then dines on the beeswax. Although this remains a possibility, it has never been fully researched.
The breeding behavior of eight species in Indicator and Prodotiscus is known. They are all brood parasites that lay one egg in a nest of another species, laying eggs in series of about five during five to seven days. Most favor hole-nesting species, often the related barbets and woodpeckers, but Prodotiscus parasitizes cup-nesters such as white-eyes and warblers. Honeyguide 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.
All Honeyguides are nest parasites, which use other cavity nesters as well as some cup nester species as hosts. African honeyguide birds are known to lay their eggs in underground nests of other bee-eating bird species. The honeyguide chicks kill the hatchlings of the host using their needle-sharp beaks just after hatching, much as cuckoo hatchlings do. The honeyguide mother ensures her chick hatches first by internally incubating the egg for an extra day before laying it, so that it has a head start in development compared to the host.

[Toko]

ORDER PICIFORMES
Family Indicatoridae (Honeyguides)
Prodotiscus zambesiae Green-backed Honeybird 479
Prodotiscus regulus Brown-backed Honeybird 478
Indicator meliphilus Pallid Honeyguide 477
Indicator minor Lesser Honeyguide 476
Indicator variegatus Scaly-throated Honeyguide 475
Indicator indicator Greater Honeyguide 474

[Dindingwe]

478. Brown-backed Honeybird Prodotiscus regulus (Skerpbekheuningvoel)
Order: Piciformes. Family: Indicatoridae

Brown-backed Honeybird.jpg (28.92 KiB) Viewed 980 times

Description
Resembles Spotted Flycatcher in appearance and jizz but may be distinguished by the lack of streaking and by the white outer tail feathers. The lack of a green wash distinguishes it from the Green-backed Honeyguide, and its sharp, thin beak distinguishes it from the Pallid Honeyguide.
Sexes: Alike. Juvenile: resembles adult.

Distribution
It is found across most of south-eastern Africa.

Habitat
Woodland, savanna, edges of forests and plantations.

Diet
It feeds on a wide variety of insects, as well as a number of products and adults of Apis mellifera (Honey bee). Unlike other honeyguides, it does not lead mammals to bees nests. It feeds on insects in crevices, bark, leaves and branches, and is also highly adept at finding dry honeycombs.

Breeding
It is a brood parasite, meaning that it lays its eggs in other bird nests. It is probably polygamous, parasitising various cisticolas (namely Neddicky), Grey-backed Camaroptera and prinias.

Call
Insect-like dzreeee, rising in pitch and lasting 3 - 4 sec.

Status
Uncommon to locally common resident, moves to lower altitudes during winter.

Links:
https://faansiepeacock.com/courtship-of ... honeybird/

[Dindingwe]

478. Brown-backed Honeybird Prodotiscus regulus


Berg-en-Dal Camp, Kruger Park