Exploring Pigeon Valley: The Scaly-throated Honeyguide

This is the 41st in an ongoing series that highlights the riches of Pigeon Valley, the urban nature reserve in the heart of Glenwood. The focus of this article will be on the Scaly-throated Honeyguide.

Very occasionally at this time of year you may hear a rising trill calling from somewhere in the canopy of Pigeon Valley. This is a bird that is not common in our area, yet sometimes is quite relaxed around human activity. I struggled to locate the one calling the other day, only to witness it coming to drink close to me.

The Honeyguide family is parasitic in that they lay eggs in the nest of a range of other birds, which means that some small bird may end up feeding a larger nestling. Perhaps the most remarkable natural event I witnessed in Pigeon Valley when I was about to lead a large group of birders around the reserve. I pointed out to them a hollowed-out nest of a pair of Cardinal Woodpeckers – at which point a Scaly-throated Honeyguide tried to enter the nest, to be confronted by the one little Woodpecker, which locked bills with the Honeyguide, forcing it to retreat.

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At another time a dead tree in the same area collapsed, exposing a large bees’ nest in the hollow. Both the Lesser and Scaly-throated Honeyguides arrived – it seems that they can detect the smell of bees’ nests from long away. While we were looking at a honeycomb that monkeys had pulled out to get at the honey, a Scaly-throated Honeyguide perched on the honeycomb in front of us, to eat the larvae in the cells. Honeyguides are a remarkable family as they have the rare ability to digest beeswax.

Crispin Hemson chairs the Friends of Pigeon Valley, a group that undertakes clearing of alien plants, keeps records of bird and mammal sightings and alerts management to any problems.

The Friends have a monthly walk at 7.30am on the second Saturday of each month. Email: friendsofpigeonvalley1@gmail.com.