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Dec 1, 2018

Blood-sucking Yellow-billed Oxpeckers

Photo: Veronika Patrovska Vernerova
Yellow-billed Oxpeckers (Buphagus africanus) are seen  above, on the back of a zebra in Lake Mburo National Park in Kenya.   Oxpeckers are passerine birds in sub-Sahara Africa and in several parts of the southern African continent.   They eats insects, ticks, and larvae from the backs of large wild and domesticated animals, such as cattle, antelopes, wildebeest, giraffes, zebras, etc.   They prefer however, fresh blood which they take from opens wounds on the large mammals' backs, which the creatures tolerate.
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BarrytheBirder 


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