In Africa there are birds which lead men to honey. They are called honey-guides and their family name, Indicatoridae, has the same idea incorporated into it. Though there are several species of these small, dull-colored birds, which are related on the one hand to woodpeckers and on the other to barbets, it is only one species, the common or black-throated honey-guide that is well known as a guide to honey.
The traveler in the country may find one of these birds chattering and flying ahead of him. The natives, who know this bird well and favorably will tell the traveler to follow; it will lead to a bee tree. The native, as he follows this guide, gives occasional whistles, as if to encourage the bird. The bird continues, flying from perch to perch, ahead, and chattering noisily. Sometimes it may return to see if the men are following; sometimes it remains chattering on its perch until the followers catch up. Finally the bird will go no farther. It flies about aimlessly and allows one to approach closely. This is the spot. In a hole in the tree trunk, or in the ground nearby the bees' nest is to be found.
When the beehive is opened, and the honey taken, the honey-guide will eat the comb that is left, and apparently it is for this that the complicated behavior of leading of man to the beehive is developed.
Wax of the honeycomb is a usual food of this species, judging by stomach examinations, and one wonders how they get it when man is not about to open the bee trees for them. The birds have no special adaptation for getting into the hives; indeed their only apparent adaptation for this habit is a thick skin, perhaps a protection against bee stings. Perhaps, as has been suggested, other animals, squirrels, monkeys, or honey badgers may unwittingly aid them by opening up bee trees for their own purposes and allow the honey-guides to snatch food for themselves.
An amusing side of the picture is that sometimes the honey-guides may lead the honey hunter to a beehive owned by a native.
There are also records of the honey-guide leading men to big game: leopard or lions. That this occurs is amply documented, but one wonders whether or not this was accidental; the honey-guide leading the way to honey perhaps by accident leads the way past the resting place of one of these big cats so that the man stumbles over the big game and perhaps gets the impression he was led to the animal.
OXPECKERS [Ref]
The lives of oxpeckers are so linked to those of large, hoofed game or domestic cattle that in West Africa where game is scarce the birds depend on cattle, and their range is restricted accordingly. There the cattle are confined to the higher and more northern areas, free of tsetse flies, from Senegal to Northern Cameroon. Thus tsetse flies help to determine the limits of the oxpeckers' range.
Except for their nesting, which is in holes in trees, and their sleeping, most of their time is spent on the bodies of the larger herbivores. There they run about over the hides and legs of the beasts, like woodpeckers on a tree. They stay remarkably close to the animals, and even ride on them as they travel. The oxpeckers' food is largely ticks, which it gets from the hide of the animal by working over it with the side of its bill, shearing off the ticks with a scissorlike action of its mandibles. But when an animal has sores or cuts or scratches the oxpecker may peck into them, and eat flesh and blood of its host.