Red-billed Oxpecker
Wild South Africa
Kruger National Park
Oxpeckers will sit on certain mammals and target the ticks and other small parasites found on the skin and in the coats of these animals. Their bills are especially adapted to their lifestyle. The bills are pointed as well as laterally compressed which helps the birds work their way through the coats of the mammals in a comb-like fashion and to pry out well embedded parasites.
Their legs are also well adapted to a life spent perched on mammals. The legs are short to enable them to grip onto their moving hosts. Powerful toes and sharp nails further benefit the Oxpeckers in their quest to feed and as a spin off keep their mammal hosts' parasite numbers under control.
The hosting animals are generally antelope like impala or kudu, or larger mammals such as zebra, giraffe, buffalo and rhino. Elephants and a few species of small antelope will not tolerate the birds at all.
Red-billed Oxpecker
Wild South Africa
Kruger National Park
Oxpeckers will sit on certain mammals and target the ticks and other small parasites found on the skin and in the coats of these animals. Their bills are especially adapted to their lifestyle. The bills are pointed as well as laterally compressed which helps the birds work their way through the coats of the mammals in a comb-like fashion and to pry out well embedded parasites.
Their legs are also well adapted to a life spent perched on mammals. The legs are short to enable them to grip onto their moving hosts. Powerful toes and sharp nails further benefit the Oxpeckers in their quest to feed and as a spin off keep their mammal hosts' parasite numbers under control.
The hosting animals are generally antelope like impala or kudu, or larger mammals such as zebra, giraffe, buffalo and rhino. Elephants and a few species of small antelope will not tolerate the birds at all.