Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Whatever the net result, mammals generally tolerate oxpeckers. [8] 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. [10] Its flight is strong and direct.
The oxpeckers are two species of bird which make up the genus Buphagus, and family Buphagidae. The oxpeckers were formerly usually treated as a subfamily , Buphaginae, within the starling family, Sturnidae , but molecular phylogenetic studies have consistently shown that they form a separate lineage that is basal to the sister clades containing ...
Main page; Contents; Current events; Random article; About Wikipedia; Contact us; Donate
The red-billed oxpecker eats ticks on the impala's coat, in a cleaning symbiosis. Service-resource relationships are common. Three important types are pollination, cleaning symbiosis, and zoochory. In pollination, a plant trades food resources in the form of nectar or pollen for the service of pollen dispersal.
Cleaning symbiosis is a relationship between a pair of animals of different species, involving the removal and subsequent ingestion of ectoparasites, diseased and injured tissue, and unwanted food items from the surface of the host organism (the client) by the cleaning organism (the cleaner). [5]
Get AOL Mail for FREE! Manage your email like never before with travel, photo & document views. Personalize your inbox with themes & tabs. You've Got Mail!
The preferred habitat is open country, and the red-billed oxpecker eats insects. Both the English and scientific names arise from this species' habit of perching on large wild and domesticated mammals such as cattle and eating ticks. [4] This species's relationship with rhinos gives the Swahili name Askari wa kifaru meaning "the rhino's guard". [5]
Impala are symbiotically related to oxpeckers, [35] which feed on ticks from those parts of the antelope's body which the animal cannot access by itself (such as the ears, neck, eyelids, forehead and underbelly). The impala is the smallest ungulate with which oxpeckers are associated.