Oxpeckers
Buphagus
The oxpeckers are two species of bird which make up the family Buphagidae. Some ornithologists regard them as a subfamily Buphaginae within the starling family, Sturnidae, but they appear to be quite distinct. Oxpeckers are endemic to the savanna of Sub-Saharan Africa. Both the English and scientific names arise from their habit of perching on large mammals (both wild and domesticated) such as cattle, zebras, impalas, hippopotamuses, or rhinoceroses, and eating ticks, small insects, botfly larvae,...
3 branches of this genus, most-observed first · about 2 known species
Red-billed Oxpecker
speciesBuphagus erythroryncha
Yellow-billed Oxpecker
speciesBuphagus africanus
Red-billed × Yellow-billed Oxpecker
hybridBuphagus erythroryncha × africanus
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
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In the stacks
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Every page naming Buphagus in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 46.