Honeyguides are known for leading humans to beehives but they have a dark side. They lay their eggs in the nests of other birds. In the case of bee-eaters, the honeyguide chicks kill the bee-eater chicks and mimic the bee-eater call so the parents are fooled into feeding them. Bee-eaters nests are underground but this was observed for the first time with use of infrared cameras. Honeyguides are known nest parasites of at least four species. Read more:
Biology Letters: A stab in the dark: chick killing by brood parasitic honeyguides
NY Times: Honeyguide Birds Are Jekyll and Hyde for the Feathered Set
Related articles
- Underground chick-killers filmed (bbc.co.uk)
- Zoologger: World’s nicest bird murders chicks (newscientist.com)
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