Bird of the Week – Yellowbilled oxpecker

THE yellowbilled oxpecker is found on the savannas of Africa south of the Sahara.

In South Africa it is confined to patches in the Kruger Park and Hluhluwe iMfolozi Game Reserve where they were reintroduced.

This bird is another red data book (RDB) bird which is listed as extinct, except for the reserves mentioned in South Africa. This is because of game eradication in their range, the reduction of ticks and the use of cattle dips.

These oxpeckers like savanna and woodlands, are found mainly along watercourses and flood plains. Here they feed on ticks and other ectoparasitic invertebrates, especially those hosted by buffalo and giraffe. They also feed on wound tissue and fluid of the host mammal.

They are usually found in small groups of four to six birds even when breeding and as many as 20 birds in winter. They clamber around on the host, using their tail as a prop. When disturbed, they keep to the far side of their host, peering over its back at the intruder. When closely approached, they gather on the back of the mammal with the bill raised, before flying off.

The call is a crackling ‘hiss kriss, kriss’.

Breeding takes place from October to March. The nest, built in the natural hole of a tree, is a pad of grass, feathers and mammal hair taken from the back of hosts. Usually two to three bluish-white eggs are laid. Incubation is 13 days and they are nestlings after about 25 days.

The Zulu name is iHlalanyathi and in Afrikaans, die geelbekrenostervoel.

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