Least Honeyguide (Indicator exilis) [XC739735]
by Brendan Sloan from Budongo Eco lodge, Uganda (song)
Least Honeyguide (Indicator exilis) [XC176684]
by James Bradley from Bobiri Butterfly Reserve, Ghana (call)
Subspecies
Relationships uncertain. In the past, Willcocks's Honeyguide (Indicator willcocksi), Pallid Honeyguide (Indicator meliphilus) and even Lesser Honeyguide (Indicator minor) were often confused with present species. Dwarf Honeyguide (Indicator pumilio) was also on occasion linked with present species. Nominate and subspecies pachyrhynchus intergrade in broad zone from eastern Central African Republic and south-western Sudan to north-eastern Zaire and western Uganda, where precise limits of respective ranges unclear. Form leona, known from a single immature bird taken near Freetown (Sierra Leone), now considered a synonym of nominate. Birds collected in northern Liberia (Wonegizi) said to be very similar to subspecies ansorgei of Willcocks's Honeyguide (Indicator willcocksi) from neighbouring Guinea-Bissau, possibly representing undescribed subspecies of present species. Alternatively, they might in fact be referable to Willcocks's Honeyguide (Indicator willcocksi).
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
exilis (Cassin, 1856) - Senegal east to eastern Central African Republic and north-eastern Zaire, south to northern Angola and north-western Zambia.
pachyrhynchus (Heuglin, 1864) - South-western Sudan and extreme eastern Zaire, east to western Kenya and south to north-western Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet