Bird and Animal Partnerships

        It is a common occurrence to find that certain animals and birds associate with each other. Sometimes they are found together only because of common feeding grounds. It is for this reason that ostriches are often seen with zebras and big game animals. Occasionally, however, the relationship is a closer one, making it possible for one to benefit from the other or for each to profit from the association.
       The most familiar case of mutual gain is the relationship between the tick birds (ox birds) and certain animals, especially the rhinoceros, giraffe, buffalo, antelope and cattle. The birds are insect feeders and they hover around the animals eating the insects attracted by them. Carrying the relationship even further, the birds often perch on the animals’ backs, or hop and run about them looking for ticks. Sometimes the ticks burrow down into the animal hides, and the tick bird uses his long bill to advantage as he digs the ticks out. The animals are very patient during this operation and often go right on feeding.
       Some men have said, and witnessed the act, that the birds aid the animals in one other way. At the slightest sign of alarm, the birds fly into the air and utter hoarse calls; this incidentally serves as a warning to several animals who cannot see the oncoming danger.
       Several other cases of bird and animal partnerships are found where the birds benefit in the same way — by feeding on the insects associated with the animals. The animals seem to pay little or no attention to the birds hovering about and often the animals profit in no way themselves except to be rid of the insect pests. For example, the cattle herons often associate with the buffaloes or cattle, only to feed on the insects disturbed from the grass by the movements of the animals. The fire-crowned tyrant birds of South America flutter about the marsh deer and perch on their backs for the same reason. In our own region the common cowbirds follow the cattle about, eating the insects stirred up by the cattle. It is this association that has given the bird its name, “cowbird.”
       Crocodiles often bask in the sunshine along the shores; certain shore birds are found there also, but not because of any partnership between the birds and the crocodiles. Both have common feeding grounds and because of this association the birds are called “crocodile birds.”

 

Brown-backed honeybird juvenile fed by
host parent, a rock-loving cisticola

       An unusual association concerns a small bird in southern Africa appropriately named the honey guide bird. This bird is very fond of honey, honeycomb and even the grubs and bees; but the bird is not large enough or strong enough to open bees’ nests without help. And so the fantastic but true story starts here: the bird guides people and occasionally honey badgers to the honey trees to open the nests for it. In the forest a person might be attracted by a chattering and fluttering bird in the tree. If the person starts toward the bird it flies to another tree and as the person follows, the bird leads on through the forest. The trail may be only a few yards and again it may go on for miles, but eventually the honey guide bird will stop in a tree where there is a nest of bees. Then the bird waits. A man ordinarily tears open the nest and takes the honey; the honeycomb, grubs and bees are thus left for the bird.
       Perhaps before man became associated with these honey guide birds, badgers and similar animals opened the nests for the birds, but no one knows how or when the curious relationship started. Even now a honey badger will often follow the bird to the honey tree but more often it is a man who follows. It is thought that the curiosity of the badger causes it to trot along after the fluttering bird. But at the end of the trail the greedy badger tears apart the nest and usually eats the honey, comb and grubs, leaving only the bees for the honey guide bird. No more unusual story of bird and animal relationship could be told and yet it is true and has been witnessed by many people. Miriam Wood

• Here's why animals become friends
• 5 Coolest Animal Partnerships
• Best of Animal Teamwork Part 1 and Part 2