Red-billed oxpecker

Taxonomy

The scientific name comes from Ancient Greek βοῦς (boûs), meaning "ox", and φάγος (phágos), meaning "eater". The specific name comes from ἐρυθρός (eruthrós), meaning "red", and ῥύγχος (rhúnkhos), meaning "snout".

Distribution

The red-billed oxpecker is a native of the savanna of sub-Saharan Africa. It ranges across Ethiopia and Somalia through Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, and Zambia to southern Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, southern Mozambique, and north-eastern South Africa.

Description

A juvenile oxpecker is darker brown than its parents. Its bill is dark olive at first, but gradually takes on adult colouration after four months. Its flight is strong and direct, and their call is a hissy crackling trik-quisss.

Behaviour

The red-billed oxpecker nests in tree holes lined with hair plucked from livestock. It lays two to five eggs, with three being the average. Outside the breeding season it forms large, chattering flocks.

The preferred habitat is open country, and the red-billed oxpecker eats insects. Both the English and scientific names arise from this species' habit of perching on large wild and domesticated mammals such as cattle and eating ticks. This species's relationship with rhinos gives the Swahili name Askari wa kifaru meaning "the rhino's guard".

An adult will take nearly 100 blood-engorged female Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) decoloratus ticks, or more than 12,000 larvae in a day. However, their preferred food is blood, and while they may take ticks bloated with blood, they also feed on it directly, pecking at the mammal's wounds to keep them open.

Field observations in rhinos have shown oxpeckers warning the nearsighted rhino of danger.

File:Red-billed oxpecker (Buphagus erythrorhynchus) on impala (Aepyceros melampus).jpg|Perched on an impala ewe File:Red-billed oxpeckers (Buphagus erythrorynchus) adult (L) sub-adult (R) on impala.jpg|Adult (L) and sub-adult (R) on impala File:African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) male with Oxpecker.jpg|Perched on an African buffalo File:Giraffe Oxpeckers Lupande Zambia Jul23 A7R 06194.jpg|Row of red-billed oxpeckers on a Thornicroft's giraffe, Zambia File:South African giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis giraffa) tail with red-billed oxpecker Kruger.jpg|On tail of a giraffe

References

References

1. BirdLife International. (2018). "''Buphagus erythrorynchus''".
2. "Buphagus erythrorhynchus (Red-billed oxpecker)".
3. (16 September 2021). "Red-billed Oxpeckers – Beauty of Birds".
4. (March 19, 2018). "Large-Scale Assessment of Commensalistic–Mutualistic Associations Between African Birds and Herbivorous Mammals Using Internet Photos". PeerJ Life & Environment.
5. Shoot, Britta. (10 June 2020). "These Birds Protect Black Rhinos from Poachers (but Also Drink Their Blood)". [[Audubon]].
6. (18 May 2020). "Oxpeckers Help Rhinos Evade Humans". Current Biology.