guiding is unpredictable and is more common among immatures and females than adult males. a guiding bird attracts a person's attention with wavering, chattering "'tya' notes compounded with peeps or pipes", sounds it also gives in aggression. the guiding bird flies toward an occupied nest (greater honeyguides know the sites of many bees' nests in their territories) and then stops and calls again. as in other situations, it spreads its tail, showing the white spots, and has a "bounding, upward flight to a perch", which make it conspicuous. if the followers are native honey-hunters, when they reach the nest they incapacitate the adult bees with smoke and open the nest with axes or "pangas" (machetes). after they take the honey, the honeyguide eats whatever is left.