For generations, Yao hunters in Mozambique have followed a wild bird called the greater honeyguide through the forest to find hidden bee nests; experiments now confirm the bird knows exactly what it is doing

For generations, Yao hunters in Mozambique have followed the greater honeyguide through the forest to find hidden bees’ nests. A 2016 study by Cambridge zoologist Claire Spottiswoode and conservation biologists Keith and Colleen Begg, published in Science as Reciprocal signaling in honeyguide-human mutualism, examined how the birds respond to a specialised sound used by honey-hunters. The experiments showed that this particular call increased the likelihood of a honeyguide joining the hunt and leading people towards a bees’ nest, providing evidence of a specialised acoustic exchange between the two species.

Their work built on decades-old observations by Kenyan ornithologist Hussein Isack, who documented honeyguides guiding Boran honey hunters towards bees’ nests. Spottiswoode and her colleagues took the question a step further, asking whether people could deliberately signal their intention to cooperate with the birds.

A call built solely for the bird


Twenty local Yao honey-hunters told the team that the distinctive “brrrr-hm” call was used specifically when seeking honeyguides. The sound therefore served as a specialised cue during honey-hunting rather than as an ordinary part of conversation.

The signal was then tested in 72 experimental honey-hunting trials in the bush. Playback recordings included the “brrrr-hm” call, a ring-necked dove call and recordings of Yao words. The birds responded much more strongly to the specialised hunting call than to the controls. The probability of receiving guidance rose from about 33% to 66%, while the chance of finding a bees’ nest increased from 17% to 54%.

Once a honeyguide begins guiding, it flies from tree to tree, calling and displaying its pale outer tail feathers as the hunters follow. When the bird reaches a bees’ nest, the guiding behaviour stops, allowing the hunters to locate the colony and open it. The honeyguide can then feed on beeswax and other material left behind.

A trade that has outlasted generations

The arrangement benefits both sides. The hunter gets access to honey, while the bird gains access to beeswax and other material from the opened nest. In the researchers’ observations, Yao hunters following a honeyguide found a bees’ nest in roughly three-quarters of hunts, showing the practical value of the birds during honey collection.

The playback experiment adds another layer to that relationship. The honeyguides were not simply reacting to human voices or sounds in the forest. They showed a stronger response to the particular “brrrr-hm” sequence than to the other recordings, indicating that this acoustic pattern has a specific role in the interaction.

What makes the exchange striking is its simplicity. A hunter produces a distinctive sound, a honeyguide responds by beginning a search, and the bird can ultimately gain access to a food source that the human has exposed. The authors described it as a rare example of a mutualistic foraging partnership between humans and a free-living wild animal.

The findings do not show that honeyguides understand human language. The birds responded most strongly to a particular learned or culturally established hunting cue, not to human speech in general. Their behaviour instead shows that they can distinguish this sound from other noises and use it as information when deciding whether to participate in a hunt.

The study leaves open how honeyguides acquire this responsiveness and how the behaviour develops over their lives. For now, the evidence from Niassa points to an unusually close foraging relationship, built around a simple sound in the forest and a bird capable of acting on it.