Clever birds!

There are some birds in southern Africa that are often associated with bigger antelopes, buffalos, giraffes or rhinos.

They form a symbiotic relationship where the mammal (involuntarily) provides food in form of ticks and parasites, whereas the birds pick them off the fur therefore help keeping it clean.

Best known for this behaviour are the Red- and Yellow-billed oxpeckers. They not only clean the fur but also warn their host with a typical alarm call in case of danger or disturbance.

In Namibia, we do not have the oxpeckers around, but just today I found some other birds on top of a zebras back: Wattled starlings (Creatophora cinerea).

Wattled starling (female or non-breeding male) on a Plain´s zebra

Wattled starlings feed mainly on insects and their larvae, but also eat fruits, nectar, and seeds. And they are obviously well known to remove ectoparasites from livestock or game, and for following large grazing herbivores and eagerly pecking up insects disturbed by their movement.

Clever birds!

I recently talked to a guide from the neighboured farm, and he told me that he had heard about it, but in the last seven years of his guiding career, he has never seen it by himself. It is obviously a bit of a special sighting and I feel blessed that I have been lucky enough to observe it.  

Good night,
Sininho