Oxpecker

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Oxpeckers
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Passeriformes Family: Sturnidae Subfamily: Buphaginae Genus: Buphagus Brisson, 1760
Species
See text.

The oxpecker consists of two species of bird which comprise the subfamily Buphaginae within the starling family Sturnidae (some ornithologists regard them as a separate family Buphagidae). Oxpeckers are endemic to sub-Saharan African savannah.

Oxpeckers are medium-sized starlings with strong feet. Their flight is strong and direct, and they are fairly gregarious. Their preferred habitat is open country, and they eat insects. Both the English and scientific names arise from their habit of perching on large mammals (both wild and domesticated) such as cattle or rhinoceroses, and eating ticks, botfly larvae, and other parasites which lodge in mammalian skin and must be dug out. This symbiotic relationship was once believed to be mutualistic.

However, their favorite food is blood, and while they may take on ticks bloated with blood, they also feed on it directly, pecking at the mammal's wounds to keep them open to more parasites and disease. So, what was once thought to be a symbiotic relationship, may at the same time, be a parasitic relationship.

Their plumage is light brown, and the species can be distinguished by bill-colour. They nest in holes, often in walls, lined with hair plucked from livestock and lay 2-3 eggs.

The species are:

• Red-billed Oxpecker, Buphagus erythrorhynchus of east Africa
• Yellow-billed Oxpecker, Buphagus africanus of most of sub-saharan Africa.