A yellow-billed oxpecker (Buphagus africanus) feeds on ticks found in the ear of an African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) in the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. The yellow-billed oxpecker can eat 100 ticks or 13,000 larvae per day. The oxpecker prefers to feed on blood and harvest ticks because they are often engorged with blood, though they will occasionally pick at wounds on mammals, including buffalo and zebra, to feed on their blood.
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