163 : Red-billed Oxpecker

Red-billed Oxpecker - Buphagus erythrorhynchus

I have just got back from a week's Safari in Tanzania with the family. Dar es Salaam is a 5 hour flight from Dubai. I am still reeling from the whole week. I saw so much I am going to have to take a month over the long Gulf Summer to process and organise all the ticks, photos, places and memories. I am going to stay on Safari in my spare time on this site for the next month.

We caught the bug for this type of trip as a family holiday when we visited the Yala national park in Sri Lanka last April. I think the beauty of a big game park, wherever it is, is that the mammals, birds and landscape all work together. There is something for everyone - the overall experience just takes your breath away. I have my favourite places but I will talk about that as I post over the next few weeks after a lull of a couple of weeks.

We began the holiday proper by spending a night staying at the Manyara Tree Lodge - a really special treat. Again I will save that for later. Our trip into the Manyara National Park began as Gregory, our first driver/guide for the trip, stopped at the famous 'Hippo Pool' on the 2 1/2 hour drive into the park proper from its main gate. Manyara is a small park set around a lake in the Great Rift Valley. The lake itself is fed by water falling off the escarpment and collecting in the lowest part of the valley. The Lake varies in size according to precipitation but is never more than 2 or 3 feet deep despite being many miles long and several miles wide. The bulk of the National Park is covered by the lake. The park itself is formed from the barrow ribbon of land running along the lake edge and the escarpment itself. The park is heavily wooded and is the home to the famous tree climbing lions (heard but not seen !).

I will make rest of this post as much about Hippos as Oxpeckers.

These giant animals weigh up to 2 tonnes and spend a great deal of time supporting their vast bulk in the water. They typically come out to graze at night. They have no natural predators and their skin is 5 cm thick. Even a fully grown Nile crocodile gives a hippo a wide birth. More people die in Africa from attacks by Hippos than by lions or any other big animal.

The Red-billed Oxpecker obviously has a parasitic relationship with the Hippo - pulling off ticks and lice and their eggs and larvae. The spit of an Oxpecker contains an anti-coagulant to keep any sore it forms running with the blood on which it also feeds. You have to wonder whether any advantage an animal gets from the grooming is offset from the open wounds that are pecked and kept open and fed on.

All over Tanzania wherever there were big animals - not just Hippos but all manner of antelopes as well - I saw Oxpeckers.

I think a shot where you get a life tick for a mammal and a bird at the same time has got to be good. We were also lucky to see these Hippos out of the water in the day as well. Typically this will only happen when it is overcast - presumably they do not like to dry out.

This large animal was home to a small party of these highly specialised starlings. We are off on Safari ! I will move from park to park and to animals and birds rather than dealing with the trip chronologically. I do need to catch up all the postings for July to stay on the pace. I have over 1000 photos from Tanzania to work from - and yes - many were of birds !

Red-billed Oxpecker, Buphagus erthrorhynchus
Lake Manyara National Park, Tanzania
19 July 2012