| Yellow-billed
Oxpecker Buphagus africanus |
||||
 |
near Mole, Ghana The Yellow-billed Oxpecker is distributed in tropical Africa south of the Sahara in open savannah where there are suitable mammals to act as hosts. See the distribution map at Birdlife International. |
|||
 |
It is dark brown above with a paler rump and pale brown underparts. The bill is yellow with a red tip and the eye is red.
It is intimately associated with mammals and can spend almost all its time perched on the host mammal even sleeping there though it will also roost on nearby trees. |
|||
 |
It feeds on parasitic ticks, fleas and flies on the mammals as
well as on the mammal's blood. The mammals concerned are principally cattle and donkeys but
they are also to be found on African buffalo, rhinoceros, giraffes, antelopes and other larger wild
mammals.
It makes a hard, rasping metallic call. |
|||
|
| If you do not see a menu on the left, you may have arrived at this page from another site. Please click Home to get to my main page. |