Newsletter / Blog
2012-04-22 Aves bird of the week – Red-billed Oxpecker - Buphagus erythrorhynchus
Red-billed Oxpecker
The Red-billed Oxpecker
- Buphagus erythrorhynchus – is endemic to Sub-Saharan Africa. They
occur in patches from Ethiopia
and Somalia through Kenya, Tanzania,
Malawi and Zambia to southern Africa.
Description
The Red-billed Oxpecker has plain
brown upperparts and head, buff underparts and a pale rump. The bill is red,
and adults have a yellow eye-ring.
Call
The call is a hissy crackling trik-quisss.
The loud hissing calls uttered whilst feeding on an animal or while in flight.
Food
The Red-billed Oxpecker eats
insects. 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. An adult will take nearly 100 engorged femaleBoophilus decoloratus ticks, or more than 12,000 larvae in a day. It
sometimes hawks termite aerially and gleans prey from vegetation, but the bulk
of its diet are ticks.
Breeding
They nest in tree holes lined
with hair plucked from mammals. The Egg-laying season is from October to March
and 2 to 5 eggs are laid, which are incubated by both sexes for between 12 to
13 days. The chicks are fed by all members of the group, leaving the nest after
about 30 days and becoming fully independent roughly two months later.
Conservation Status – Least concern
This species has an extremely
large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under
the range size criterion. By 1910 the range of the Red-billed Oxpecker had
shrunk to the north-eastern corner of South Africa. The dips used to
control ticks on cattle were a death sentence for oxpeckers. With the
introduction of “oxpecker-friendly” dips, a series of translocations and
natural recolonisation, the range of the Red-billed Oxpecker has
expanded in South Africa.
Birds have been translocated to reserves in the Eastern
Cape, Western Cape and Northern Cape. This has
been co-ordinated by EWT – Wildlife Conflict Prevention Group.
Birdwatching
Ask Aves Birding
Tours/Safaris/Adventures to create an Aves custom tour for you or book on
one of the following Aves Birding Tours/Safaris/Adventures: -
Aves Arid Birding
Tour/Safari/Adventure.
Aves Eastern Cape Birding
Tour / Safari /Adventure.
Aves Highlands / Tembe Birding Tour / Safari /
Adventure.
Aves KZN Birding Tour / Safari /
Adventure.
Aves North East Birding Tour /
Safari / Adventure.
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