The yellow 🌼-billed oxpecker (Buphagus africanus) is 🈶 a passerine bird 🐔🐔 in the family 👪 Buphagidae. It was previously placed in the starling and myna family 👪, Sturnidae.

It is 🈶 native to the savannah of Sub-Saharan Africa 🇿🇦 from Senegal 🇸🇳 east 🌏🌏🌏 to Sudan 🇸🇩. It is 🈶 least common in the extreme east 🌏🌏 of its range where 🤷 it overlaps with the red 👹👹-billed oxpecker, despite always 🕔 dominating that species when ⏰ feeding.

## Contents

1. Taxonomy
2. Behavior

## Taxonomy

In 1760 the French 🥐 zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the yellow 🌼-billed oxpecker in his Ornithologie based on 🔛 a specimen collected in Senegal 🇸🇳🇸🇳🇸🇳. He used the French 🥐 name Le pique-boeuf and the Latin Buphagus. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International 🌎 Commission on 🔛 Zoological Nomenclature. When ⏰ in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One 1️⃣ of these was the yellow 🌼-billed oxpecker. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Buphaga africana and cited Brisson’s work 💼. This ⬆ species is 🈶 placed in the genus Buphagus that was introduced by Brisson.

Two subspecies are recognised:

* *B. a.* subsp. *africanus* Linnaeus, 1766 – Mauritania and Senegal to northwest Ethiopia south to northeast South Africa
* *B. a.* subsp. *langi* Chapin, 1921 – Gabon, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo and west Angola

## Behavior

The yellow 🌼-billed oxpecker nests in tree 🍃🍃🍃 holes lined with hair 💈 plucked from livestock. It lays 2–3 eggs. Outside the breeding season ❄️ it is 🈶 fairly gregarious, forming large, chattering flocks. Non-breeding birds will roost on 🔛🔛🔛 their host animals at night 😴😴😴.

The yellow 🌼-billed oxpecker eats insects and ticks. Both the English 🇬🇧 and scientific names arise from this ⬆ species’ habit of perching on 🔛 large wild 🐻🐻🐻 and domesticated mammals such as cattle and eating arthropod parasites. It will also perch on 🔛🔛 antelopes such as wildebeest. In a day an adult 🧑🧑🧑 will take more ➕➕ than 100 💯 engorged female 👧👧👧 Boophilus decoloratus ticks or 13,000 larvae.

However, their preferred food 🐟🐟 is 🈶 blood 💉💉, and while they may take ticks bloated with blood 💉💉, they also feed on 🔛🔛🔛 it directly, pecking at the mammal’s wounds until blood 💉💉💉 flows. Whatever the net result, mammals generally tolerate oxpeckers.

The yellow 🌼-billed oxpecker is 🈶 20 cm 🇨🇲🇨🇲🇨🇲 (7.9 in) long and has plain brown 🐴🐴 upperparts and head 💆, buff underparts and a pale rump. The feet 🚶‍♀️🚶‍♀️ are strong 💪. The adults’ bills 💸💸 are yellow 🌼 at the base and red 👹👹 at the tip, while juveniles have 🈶🈶 brown 🐴🐴 bills 💸💸. Its flight 🛩 is 🈶 strong 💪 and direct. The call is 🈶 a hissy, crackling krisss, krisss.