Twitchers excited at return of oxpeckers to E Cape

Bird watchers are all a-twitter at sightings of rare red-billed oxpeckers around Makhanda.

When local equestrienne Leigh Vetch posted photos on social media of a cute little bird curled up and snoozing in the deep winter coat of a horse that shares a large camp with her own horse, she had no idea the excitement it would cause.

“I managed to get really close to take a few photographs of one of them,” said Vetch. “It was fast asleep.”

The big South African warmblood horse, who goes by the name UB40, also the name of a famous reggae-ska band, seemed to quite enjoy the attention if not the messy white calling-card left by some of his visitors on his chestnut coat, she said.

“I thought it was a very sweet photo of grumpy old UB40 enjoying the attention of some feathered friends and I posted it for that reason,” said Vetch.

She has subsequently spotted four of the little birds hanging around the horses.

“I’ve never seen them before. They have a very distinctive way of scrambling over the horses like little geckos on a wall.”

Vetch said she was delighted to have the twitchers all a-twitter at her photos.

Local photographer and birding enthusiast Lynette Rudman is thrilled with the sightings and has reposted Vetch’s photos to her own social media and to birding groups.

She says the sightings in Makhanda are a clear indication of the enormous success of the reintroduction of the birds in the Eastern Cape in the past few decades.

According to Rudman, the red-billed oxpecker was completely wiped out in the Eastern Cape in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

The birds live off ticks and other blood-sucking insects that feed off wildlife such as rhino, buffalo, eland, giraffe and zebra. But, due to large-scale hunting in the late 1700s and 1800s, they turned their attention to feeding off the same ticks and insects that also hung around domesticated cattle and horses.

Following the introduction of arsenic-based cattle dip in the late 1800s, the birds completely disappeared from the province’s landscape.

“This was a great pity as they should be a stock farmer’s best friend,” said Rudman.

In the 1990s some red-billed oxpeckers from the Kruger National Park were reintroduced in wildlife reserve areas such as the Fish River reserve, Shamwari and Addo. Twenty three were also released in Rockdale reserve near Riebeek East about 10km north of Makhanda.

“We think the Great Fish Reserve population has now met up with the Rockdale population. That might be the reason why they are spreading east now.”

SanParks also translocated 40 of the birds from the Kruger National Park to the Mountain Zebra National Park outside Cradock in 2010.

Rudman has urged all farmers and horse owners to use only bird-friendly dips for their animals so that the oxpecker can continue to breed and thrive in the area.

Meanwhile, the four that have settled in the Makhanda area seem perfectly happy to keep their small herd of horses tick free.