Red-billed Oxpecker

Buphagus erythrorhynchus

Game and cattle regions. Upperparts and entire head dark brown; underparts and rump yellow-buff; bill and eyes red; eye-rings yellow.

Oxpeckers

Not Endemic

Description

Common resident. Differs from [Yellow-billed Oxpecker] in entirely red bill and large yellow eye-wattle; does not have a pale rump. Immature has blackish bill and yellow gape; general appearance duller. Utters a hissing ‘churr’ and a ‘tzik, tzik’ sound; most noisy when flying high overhead. Normally seen in association with giraffe or antelope in game reserves; in remote rural areas on domestic cattle. In the evenings, flocks gather to roost in dead trees standing in water.

Quick Facts

Bird Family

Considered distant relatives of starlings and endemic to sub-Saharan Africa. They have very sharp claws for clinging to large mammals. They use their bills to comb the animal's fur for ticks and bloodsucking flies. Their diet also includes the blood and mucus of host animals; they will keep pecking at a wound to encourage blood flow. Oxpeckers' presence may reduce the time spent grooming by mammalian hosts by as much as a third. Their tails are used as props in woodpecker fashion as they clamber all over their hosts.