Being parasitised by a greater honeyguide is very bad news for a host – the young honeyguide stabs the host’s young to death with special bill hooks as soon as it hatches (more here). It’s therefore puzzling that little bee-eater hosts seem not to recognise and eject honeyguide eggs from their nests (more here). In this paper, we tested whether perhaps the sight of a female honeyguide (pictured) at the nest might give hosts a cue that they’re being parasitised and prompt them to defend themselves. The answer is that most bee-eaters seem bafflingly blithe! Read more in the original paper by Wenfei Tong, Nicholas Horrocks and Claire Spottiswoode, available open access in Ibis.
Chima Nwaogu presents research lecture at Uppsala University, Sweden
Dr Chima Nwaogu visited the Animal Ecology Unit at the Evolutionsbiologisk centrum (EBC) at Uppsala University, Sweden, to present the 2025 Christer Hemborg lecture. He gave a research lecture on why Afrotropical birds breed when they do, based on analyses of breeding records derived from Major John Colebrook-Robjent’s egg collection currently held at the Livingstone Museum. He explored how the effects of pre-rain tree green-up and rainfall onset differentially drive invertebrate and grass seed abundance, influencing multiple seasonal bird breeding patterns throughout the year.