Besides being easily distinguished by their red beak, red-billed oxpeckers have dark brown plumage on their back that turns into a tan color on the front. They also have red eyes surrounded by yellow feathers.

Red-billed oxpeckers can reach about nine inches in length and weigh a little under two ounces. Both red and yellow-billed oxpeckers have broad bills and light brown feathers, but the red-billed birds are more numerous. The oxpecker’s feet have three toes facing forwards and one toe facing backwards making it a passerine bird, which is any bird known to perch on limbs.

The red-billed oxpecker is a bird that is found only in the Sub-Saharan parts of Africa where they enjoy open savannas, shrubs, and grassy plains. The other species of oxpecker is the yellow-billed oxpecker, which has a similar range as the red-billed but has fewer numbers.

Oxpeckers got their name because they are often found perching on large mammals such as cattle and eating the insects off of them. Red-billed oxpeckers will use a scissoring motion to extract insects while yellow-billed oxpeckers use a pecking motion. Their insects of choice are ticks, flies, worms, and lice. Their methods are so effective that an adult oxpecker can eat 100 blood-engorged ticks or more than 12,000 larvae every day!

Oxpeckers mate during the rainy season at the end of the year into February. Both parents will prepare the nest, which can be found in tree and rock crevices lined with grass and animal fur. Two to three pale, speckled eggs are laid that will hatch after about two weeks. Chicks will depend on their parents for food for the first four months of their life before they start venturing out of the nest.

Oxpeckers almost went extinct in the wild from excessive hunting of rhinos and buffalos, which are the oxpeckers’ two main hosts, but breeding them in captivity saved the species.

Even though oxpeckers will drink the blood of the insects’ host, they do provide some benefits. For example, red-billed oxpeckers will produce alarm calls when they sense predators. These birds are very vocal and communicate using whistles and chattering sounds. Most animals will accept the oxpecker’s presence, however, waterbucks, hartebeests, and elephants do not.