Camera: Sony ILCE-1

Lens: Sony 400mm G OSS f2.8, with Sony 1.4x teleconverter

Aperture: f4

Shutter speed: 1/1000s

ISO: 720

Description: A Red-Billed Oxpecker hangs on to the vertical side of a Cape Buffalo. It was searching for insects on the buffalo's hide.

Story from behind the lens: It was very hard to obtain good pictures of oxpeckers. When we saw them it was nearly always well after sunrise, so the light was harsh. Often the birds were sitting on parts of the animal that were confusing or indecipherable with the shallow depth of field of long telephoto lenses. It was the same for this family of oxpeckers sitting on top of a Cape Buffalo, but as we were leaving the buffalo, our driver went around to the shaded side. There I saw this one oxpecker completely in the shade, against a nearly flat and vertical 'wall' of buffalo. That was the picture I was looking for.