The Green-backed Honeyguide is a rather drab bird from the central third of Africa. It does not occur in the northern or southern parts of the continent.
They eat primarily insects but also are known to utilize the wax of honeycomb and will lead other animals including humans to bee hives in order to cooperate in getting the wax.
Classification:
Order: Piciformes
Family: Indicatoridae
Genus: Prodotiscus
Species: P. zambesiae
Photos:
Green-backed Honeyguide, Thyolo (Malawi), 29-Sep-08
"This is quite a scarce species with a not particularly wide distribution so when I saw it I presumed it would be the commoner Lesser Honeyguide. The size of the bill suggested otherwise though - Lesser Honeyguide has a thick bill. It was seen from the porch of the Guest House in the Satemwa Tea Estate - I saw more birds from here than in the forest on the mountain which was the reason for us staying there."
Ed. Note: This is the only photo of this species that I was able to find.
Video:
Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any video of this species to share here. If you know of one, please leave a comment with a link.
Commentary:
There are not any blog entries that I could find on this species. Apparently nobody is seeing this one in the wild. I’ll have to keep watching for some.
