Oxpeckers are one of my favourite bird species to photograph. I love yellow-billed oxpeckers in particular because of the striking colours on their bills. I found a flock of yellow-billed oxpeckers with a herd of buffalo close to Mopani Camp in the Kruger National Park. It was a misty morning and the buffalo were all lying down next to the road. I positioned my vehicle close to the buffalo and sat quietly, capturing a series of portraits of these beautiful birds before the buffalo herd got up and disappeared into the Mopani thicket. In this photo, a buffalo was laying down right behind the oxpecker that I was photographing, providing the perfect background to make the bird and the profile of the buffalo he was sitting on, stand out.
Oxpecker on buffalo
Kruger Park, South Africa
Canon 1D Mark II N | 600mmf/4 + 1.4tc | 1/320sec at f/5.6, ISO 400
This photograph was runner-up in the bird category of the 2008 Fuji Getaway Wildlife Awards. I was also fortunate to have two additional highly commended photographs in this category.
