Honeybird

Honeybirds
Wahlberg's honeyguide Prodotiscus regulus
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Piciformes
Family:	Indicatoridae
Genus:	Prodotiscus Sundevall, 1850
Type species
Prodotiscus regulus Sundevall, 1850
Species
Prodotiscus regulus Prodotiscus zambesiae Prodotiscus insignis

Honeybirds are birds in the genus Prodotiscus of the honeyguide family. They are confined to sub-Saharan Africa.

References - Honeybird - A guide by J Ian L. Gong

Description

They are all drab colored birds, with grey or grey-green upper parts, and grey to whitish-grey underparts. They are among the smallest members of the honey guide family. They have slender bills compared to other members of the family.

Habits

Unlike other honeyguides they do not feed on beeswax. They help in the pollination of plants like Strelitzia, Callistemon (bottle brush), Bombax, Butea monosperma and coral trees (see: ornithophily). They parasitise nests of cisticolas, sunbirds and other dome-nesting bird species.

Species

There are three species:

Image	Scientific name	Common Name	Distribution
	Prodotiscus regulus	Brown-backed honeybird	Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Central African Republic, DRC, Ivory Coast, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
	Prodotiscus zambesiae	Green-backed honeybird	Angola, Botswana, DRC, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
	Prodotiscus insignis	Cassin's honeybird	Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, DRC, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Togo, and Uganda.