Oxpecker
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The oxpecker consists of two species of bird which make up the family Buphagidae; some ornithologists regard them as a subfamily Buphaginae within the starling family Sturnidae but they appear to be quite distinct (see e.g. Zuccon et al. 2006). Oxpeckers are endemic to sub-Saharan African savannah.
According to the more recent studies of Muscicapoidea phylogeny (Cibois & Cracraft 2004, Zuccon et al. 2006), the oxpeckers are an ancient line related to Mimidae (mockingbirds and thrashers) and starlings but not particularly close to either. Considering the known biogeography of these groups, the most plausible explanation seems that the oxpecker lineage originated in Eastern or Southeastern Asia like the other two (Zuccon et al. 2006). This would make the two species of Buphagus something like living fossils, and elegantly demonstrates that such remnants of past evolution can possess striking and unique autapomorphic adaptations.
[edit] Species
- Red-billed Oxpecker, Buphagus erythrorhynchus of east Africa and Asia.
- Yellow-billed Oxpecker, Buphagus africanus of most of sub-saharan Africa.
[edit] Biology
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.
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.
Their favorite food, though, 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. Thus, what was once thought to be a symbiotic relationship, may at the same time, be a parasitic relationship.
[edit] References
- Cibois, A. & Cracraft, J. (2004). Assessing the passerine 'tapestry': phylogenetic relationships of the Muscicapoidea inferred from nuclear DNA sequences. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 32(1): 264–273. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2003.12.002 (HTML)
- Zuccon, Dario; Cibois, Anne; Pasquet, Eric & Ericson, Per G.P. (2006): Nuclear and mitochondrial sequence data reveal the major lineages of starlings, mynas and related taxa. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 41(2): 333-344. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2006.05.007 (HTML abstract)
