MyKrugerHoliday
Photo: Gerrie van Vuuren · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source ↗
Red-billed Oxpecker
Rooibekrenostervoël · Buphagus erythrorynchus
This brown bird with a bright red bill and a yellow ring around its eye spends its life riding on big mammals like buffalo, giraffe, and rhino. It clambers over their bodies plucking ticks, flies, and bits of dead skin, and even sips blood from wounds. Its scuttling claws and stiff tail help it cling like a woodpecker to its moving host.
Log your Red-billed Oxpecker sighting — free →How to identify it
An all-red bill and bare yellow eye-ring separate it from the yellow-billed oxpecker, seen clinging to big game.
Listen for its call
Sharp hissy churr — a scolding "tsss-tsss" buzz as it clings to game.
Where to see it in Kruger
Common throughout the park wherever there are large mammals, especially on buffalo, giraffe, and antelope.
Did you know
Oxpeckers act as living alarm systems, hissing and flying up to warn their host animal when a predator approaches.
Often confused with
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