African Honeyguides

Research on a remarkable
human-animal relationship

Jess Lund

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Jess Lund with nestling greater honeyguide

Biography

I am an ornithologist and evolutionary biologist focussing on the ways in which species interact, and the consequences of these interactions on the evolutionary trajectories of populations. My work is predominantly field-based, but I supplement behavioural and experimental data with genetic and genomic methods. I am driven by a passion for natural history in general, and birds in particular, which was cultivated growing up on a farm in Limpopo (north-eastern South Africa).

In 2018 I began working with Claire Spottiswoode, and have been part of the team since then. For my Masters at the University of Cape Town, I investigated the evolution of highly accurate egg mimicry by African cuckoos, and the effectiveness of egg ‘signatures’ in their fork-tailed drongo hosts. I then switched to working on honeyguides for my PhD in 2020, and have been smitten ever since. My fieldwork is based both at a study site near Choma, Zambia (see AfricanCuckoos.com), and in the Niassa Special Reserve, Mozambique. Despite temporarily moving to the UK for my PhD at Cambridge, I spend as much time as possible in the field with honeyguides.

Research focus

My research focusses on the causes and ecological consequences of host specificity in brood parasites. I aim to bring together the two distinct strings of greater honeyguide life history: their lives as brood parasites of bee-eaters, hoopoes, kingfishers, and others; and their lives as mutualists with human honey-hunters. My main research aim is to determine how host-specific adaptations, and contrasting host rearing environments, might influence the adult lives of brood parasites. For the greater honeyguide, this involves investigating their morphology, cooperation with humans, gut microbiome, movement patterns, and mating system. As part of the ERC honeyguides project, I have carried out fieldwork on honeyguide and host gut microbiomes in Zambia, and GPS tracking of honeyguides in the Niassa Special Reserve.

In addition to my core work, I am also interested in and continue to collaborate on several other projects investigating the consequences of host-specificity in cuckoo finches, the genetic mechanisms of egg signatures and forgeries, and the nomadic movements of bronze-winged coursers.

Peer-reviewed publications

Cram, D.L., Lloyd-Jones, D.J., van der Wal, J.E.M., Lund, J., Buanachique, I.O., Muamedi, M., Nanguar, C.I., Ngovene, A., Raveh, S., Boner, W., Spottiswoode, C.N. 2023. Guides and cheats: producer-scrounger dynamics in the human-honeyguide mutualism. Proceedings Royal Society B 290, 20232024.
Dixit, T., Lund, J., Fulford, A.J.C., Apostol, A.L., Chen, K.-C., Tong, W., Feeney, W.E., Hamusikili, L., Colebrook-Robjent, J.F.R., Town, C.P. & Spottiswoode, C.N. 2023 Chase-away evolution maintains imperfect mimicry despite rapid evolution of mimics. Nature Ecology & Evolution 7: 1978–1982.
Lund, J., Dixit, T., Attwood, M.C., Hamama, S., Moya, C., Stevens, M., Jamie, G.A. & Spottiswoode, C.N. 2023 When perfection isn’t enough: host egg signatures are an effective defence against high-fidelity African cuckoo mimicry. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 290: 20231125.
Dixit, T., Choi, G.P.T., al-Mosleh, S., Lund, J., Troscianko, J., Moya, C,., Mahadevan, L.* & Spottiswoode, C.N.* 2023 Combined measures of mimetic fidelity explain imperfect mimicry in a brood parasite-host system. Biology Letters 19: 20220538.
Attwood, M.C., Lund, J., Nwaogu, C.J., Moya, C. & Spottiswoode, C.N. 2023 Aggressive hosts are undeterred by a cuckoo’s hawk-mimicry, but likely make good foster parents. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 290: 20221506.
Spottiswoode, C.N., & Lund, J. & Lloyd-Jones, D.J. 2022 Quick Guide: Honeyguides. Current Biology 32: R1072-R107
Cram, D.L., van der Wal, J.E.M., Uomini, N.T., Cantor, M., Afan, A.I., Attwood, M.C., Amphaeris, J., Balasani, F., Blair, C.J., Bronstein, J.L., Buanachique, I.O., Cuthill, R.R.T., Das, J., Daura-Jorge, F.G., Deb, A., Dixit, T., Dlamini, G.S., Dounias, E., Gedi, I.I., Gruber, M., Hoffman, L.S., Holzlehner, T., Isack, H.A., Laltaika, A.E., Lloyd-Jones, D.J., Lund, J., Machado, A.M.S., Mahadevan, L., Moreno, I.B., Nwaogu, C.J., Pereira, V.L., Pierotti, R., Rucunua, S.A., dos Santos, W.F., Serpa, N., Smith, B.D., Sridhar, H., Tolkova, I., Tun, T., Valle-Pereira, J.V.S., Wood, B.M., Wrangham, R.W. & Spottiswoode, C.N. 2022 The ecology and evolution of human-wildlife cooperation. People and Nature 4: 841-855. Read abstract in English, Portuguese and Kiswahili here
van der Wal, J.E.M., Spottiswoode, C.N., Uomini, N.T., Cantor, M., Daura-Jorge, F.G., Afan, A.I., Attwood, M.C., Amphaeris, J., Balasani, F., Begg, C.M., Blair, C.J., Bronstein, J.L., Buanachique, I.O., Cuthill, R.R.T., Das, J., Deb, A., Dixit, T., Dlamini, G.S., Dounias, E., Gedi, I.I., Gruber, M., Hoffman, L.S., Holzlehner, T., Isack, H.A., Laltaika, A.E., Lloyd-Jones, D.J., Lund, J., Machado, A.M.S., Mahadevan, L., Moreno, I.B., Nwaogu, C.J., Pereira, V.L., Pierotti, R., Rucunua, S.A., dos Santos, W.F., Serpa, N., Smith, B.D., Tolkova, I., Tun, T., Valle-Pereira, J.V.S., Wood, B.M., Wrangham, R.W. & Cram, D.L. 2022 Safeguarding human-wildlife cooperation. Conservation Letters e12886 Read abstract in English, Portuguese and Kiswahili here
McClelland, S.C., Reynolds, M., Cordall, M., Hauber, M.E., Goymann, W., McClean, L.A., Hamama, S., Lund, J., Dixit, T., Louder, M.I.M., Safari, I., Honza, M., Spottiswoode, C.N. & Portugal, S.J. 2021 Embryo movement is more frequent in avian brood parasites than birds with parental reproductive strategies. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 288: 20211137.
Lund, J., Bolopo, D., Thomson, R.L., Elliott, D.L., Arnot, L.F., Kemp, R., Lowney, A.M. & McKechnie, A.E. 2020 Winter thermoregulation in free-ranging pygmy falcons in the Kalahari Desert. Journal of Ornithology 161: 549-555

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News

New study shows that honey-hunter calls vary regionally like dialects

Jan 22, 2026

We have published a new study in People and Nature showing that people in northern Mozambique use regionally distinct “dialects” when communicating with honeyguides. Led by Jessica van der Wal, the paper shows that human–honeyguide communication varies across landscapes in ways that mirror regional variation in human languages. Despite these differences in calls, cooperation between people and honeyguides remains successful and important for human livelihoods across the Niassa Special Reserve, suggesting that both species adjust to one another across their shared landscape.

New paper on honey-hunting with honeyguides in western Africa

Dec 4, 2025

We are pleased to share our new paper on honey-hunting with honeyguides, in western Africa this time. Led by Wiro-Bless Kamboe as part of his MSc project, and co-authored with Claire Spottiswoode and Timothy Khan Aikins, with Jessica van der Wal as senior author, the study documents honey-hunting practices in northern Ghana and explores the involvement of greater honeyguides. We found that while mutualism persists, it occurs at lower levels than those documented in eastern and southern Africa. Honey-hunters in Ghana often visit known bees’ nests without honeyguides’ help, and discarded beeswax continues to supplement the birds’ diet. We found no clear evidence that socio-economic changes, such as increased access to motorised transport, have disrupted this relationship.

Dr David Lloyd-Jones graduates with his PhD

Sep 9, 2025

Dr David Lloyd-Jones graduated with his PhD from the University of Cape Town, entitled “Cooperation, ecology and behaviour in the honeyguide-human mutualism” – congratulations, David, on this wonderful outcome of many happy years of fieldwork in the Niassa Special Reserve together with our honey-hunter collaborators and friends, supported by the Mariri Environmental Centre.