#honeyguide

[cheerclaw]

a bunch of lesbian furries tests. idk which ones i like tbh

[best-bird-tournament]

Piciformes order

Which is the best bird?

Coppery-chested jacamar

Pileated woodpecker

Red-throated barbet

Yellow-rumped tinkerbird

Keel-billed toucan

Toucan barbet

Yellow-rumped honeyguide

Pied puffbird

Lemon-throated barbet

Voting ended onJan 21

[buggbuzz]

yes i'm still doing these!! i wasn't able to finish them all before my final exam (got an A+ in the class tho yay!!) so i wanted to take a breather before finishing them afterwards. also i totally got thrown into lamin research like right after the semester ended so i've been BUSY!!!

anyways, last two are accipitriformes and passeriformes. recommended me some passeriformes to include so that i can try to capture the diversity of the order!!!

[unbfacts]

In parts of Africa, wild greater honeyguide birds really can help people find honey. The birds chatter, fly from tree to tree, and lead honey hunters toward hidden wild bee nests. People also use special local calls to ask for the birds’ help, like the Yao “brrr-hm” call in Mozambique. After humans open the nest and collect the honey, the honeyguides can eat the leftover beeswax and larvae. It is one of the rare cases where wild animals and humans work together without training.

[birdstudies]

December 9, 2024 - Green-backed Honeybird (Prodotiscus zambesiae) Found in parts of eastern and southern Africa, as far north as Ethiopia and South as Mozambique, these honeyguides live in forests, often near streams, savannas, and gardens. They eat insects, including beetles, scale insects, and termites, as well as spiders and some fruit and seeds, often foraging in mixed-species flocks. Females lay their eggs in the nests of several species of white-eyes, flycatchers, and other birds.

[masterbuilderintern]

Jesper Matisse - Honeyguide - Coccineus

Design notes!

Jesper Matisse: Their color palette is meant to be a pastel version of the peacock colors! The feather motifs are also to reference the peacock, of course. Jesper starts as Honeyguide, and later takes on the Coccineus identity. The pink is also to show they're actually into cuter aesthetics than they would let on, but is held back by their strict upbringing, thus the more formal attire. The sweater in particular is both modest and hides their strong build, which they're actually not too fond of.

Honeyguide: The colors are leaned toward a more neon look for a bioluminescent look to match the water theme of the story. This is also why the blues are more prominent. The costume itself is based off of girl's hanfu, fitting with Jesper's secret love of cute aesthetics and also undiscovered gender identity at the beginning. (Jasper is also of Chinese decent.) The most obvious detail is the eye motifs. The Honeyguide persona was a lot more of a watcher than anything, the main goal to be collecting the miraculous over any fighting. The mask in particular is spotted the way it is to give the illusion of five eyes. There's also the silly detail of the peacock feather cowlick.

The Tuanshan Fan: This lets the peacock keep the feathered fan while fitting the girl's hanfu aesthetic of the whole suit.

Coccineus: I wanted to lean away from the bootleg Mister Bug look, so I added blue and more hanfu inspirations. The Coccineus suit is more masculine than Honeyguide, since Jesper has to be a more active participant in miraculous affairs after taking on this identity, which triggers their instinct to put up a specific "soldier" persona. And of course, the antennae cowlick.

The Meteor Hammer: A weapon of Chinese origin. There's multiple versions of this weapon, to being on string or chain, to having a handle like a mace. I've chosen to use the chains for cool points and symbolism. The tail end of the weapon are wing-shaped ribbons that are what Coccineus uses to catch the akumas. I liked the idea of one end being heavy and violent while the other soft and passive. It shows the conflict with Jesper's character.

Shared Traits: Spots! Also the blue/red (purple/pink) colors. I also wanted to go for a "well-kempt and elegant" look between them all. Jesper cares a lot about how they look! For the hero suits in specific, I want to lean into Jesper's self-perception and go with some less human traits, like the cowlicks, "wings", and colored sclera. The two suits also still have signs of the other miraculous. Honeyguide still has earrings, Coccineus has a red spot on their chest.

Tikki and Duusu: So for kwami in general, I want to make them look more like their animals but still hit a middle ground between that and "fairy." It's just for fun, really. I could lie and say it's for symbolism but I just like the way they look this way. Their personalities should be relatively the same as canon, if not a few tweaks for one reason or another.

[herpsandbirds]

Yellow-rumped Honeyguide (Indicator xanthonotus), family Indicatoridae, order Piciformes, northern India

This species feeds on deserted and active bee hives.

Unlike other species of honeyguide, this species has not been observed leading humans or other animals to bee nests.

photograph by Endless Explorer

[everydayesterday]

[photo 1: A Greater Honeyguide feeds on honeycomb in South Africa.  Photo: Nigel J. Dennis/Gallo Images/Corbis. From Audubon.]

[photo 2: A Yao honey-hunter in Mozambique holds a honeyguide bird. Photo: Claire Spottiswoode/University of Cape Town. From New Scientist.]

from New Scientist magazine: Honeyguide birds respond to special calls from human honey-hunters

Excerpt: "People from multiple cultures in Africa have unique sounds [my note: later described in the text as "bird-like whistles" of the Hadza honey-hunters, and "trill-grunts" of the Yao honey-hunters] that they use to communicate with honeyguide birds, and the birds recognise these signals as an invitation to cooperate.

"Greater honeyguides (Indicator indicator) lead humans to bees’ nests so that honey-hunters will break them open. While the humans collect the honey, the birds feast on beeswax and larvae."

The full research article, written by Claire Spottiswoode and Brian Wood, Culturally determined interspecies communication between humans and honeyguides, was published in Volume 382, Issue 6675 of Science.

[By the way, the Honeyguide has a fantastic taxonomic name: "Indicator indicator."]