oxpeckern.
/ˈɒksˌpɛkə/, U.S. /ˈɑksˌpɛkər/ Either of two African birds which habitually cling to the backs of cattle and other large mammals to feed on ticks and other parasites, the yellow-billed Buphagus africanus and the red-billed B. erythrorhynchus (family Sturnidae or, in some classifications, Buphagidae).
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the world > animals > birds > order Passeriformes (singing) > larger song birds > [noun] > family Sturnidae > genus Buphagus (ox-pecker)
rhinoceros bird1822
beefeater1836
oxpecker1837
tick-bird1850
buffalo-bird1857
ox-biter1885
tick-eater1903
cow-picker1915
1837 W. Swainson Nat. Hist. Birds Western Afr. II. 200 (heading) Common oxpecker.
1884 E. L. Layard & R. B. Sharpe Birds of S. Afr. 419 During our stay in the bush Ox-peckers appeared in numbers about our oxen, and actually ate large holes in the fleshy part of their backs.
1964 A. L. Thomson New Dict. Birds 577/2 The Yellow-billed Oxpecker has much the larger geographical spread of the two, from Senegal to Ethiopia and Natal; the slightly smaller Red-billed Oxpecker is purely eastern, from Ethiopia southwards.
1970 New Yorker 10 Oct. 79/2 (advt.) A red-billed oxpecker lands on its back.
1990 Grocott's Mail (Grahamstown, S. Afr.) 30 Oct. 3 The ox-pecker, whose appetite for ticks is seemingly insatiable, is also the farmers' friend.
2008 J. E. Duffy in Encycl. Ecol. I. 269/2 By removing ticks from their hosts, oxpeckers get a steady source of food, while the host gets relief from parasitism.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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