This bird at Zwartkop Country Club near Pretoria, was sitting under a canopy of trees near the 10th tee looking at me and after a few minutes it flew low, below the canopy, towards the 17th green, uttering the chattering call of the ‘guiding’ Honeyguide.  Beehives had previously been erected outside the perimeter of the course. This is the first time that a Greater Honeyguide had been observed at the golf Club. (See Fork-tailed Drongo eating bees near the 17th green).

Professor Clair Spottiswood spent 8 years in central Africa and Mozambique studying and proving that communication did exist between ‘man’ and the Greater Honeyguide in the search and location of beehives. (Honey for the human and uniquely, wax for the Honeyguide.) The human devised a call to entice the bird into his territory while the Honeyguide utters its chattering call when ‘guiding’ the human to the beehive it had found. The Human’s part in this process is to extricate the hive, by whatever means, from its location in the rocks, dead stumps or wherever.

This interesting bird was featured on a show by Sir David Attenborough.