Red-billed Oxpecker (Buphagus erythrorhynchus)
French: Piqueboeuf à bec rougeGerman: Rotschnabel-Madenhacker
Italian: Bufaga dal becco rosso This bird is one of the most common birds found on Kapama. It is a passerine* bird in the starling and myna family Sturndidae. It is native to the savannah of sub-Saharan Africa, from the Central African Republic east to Sudan and south to northern and eastern South Africa. 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. An adult will consume nearly 100 engorged female ticks or more than 12,000 larvae in a day. The Red-billed Oxpecker nests in tree holes lined with hair plucked from livestock. It lays 2-5 (average 3) eggs. Outside the breeding season they forms large, chattery flocks. Their most favorite food is blood and the ticks they consume are gorged with blood. They also feed on blood directly, pecking at the mammal’s wounds to keep them open to more parasites. So, what the bird does good to the mammal, is negated by it keeping the wounds open to parasites and disease.
Their relative the Yellow-billed Oxpecker (Buphagus africanus) is not found on Kapama and they serve the same role as the Red-billed Oxpecker. *passerine:
Belonging to the avian order Passeriformes, which includes the perching birds. Passerine birds make up more than half of all living birds. They are of small to medium size, have three toes pointing forward and one pointing back, and are often brightly colored. Larks, swallows, jays, crows, wrens, thrushes, cardinals, finches, sparrows, and blackbirds are all passerine birds.
