Accurate population figures for this species were derived from two sets of counts undertaken on the two oxpecker species found in the Caprivi Strip, the only area of Namibia in which they both occur. An increase in numbers was recorded over a 15-year period, with an estimated 3,627 to 4,902 birds recorded in 1997 and 1998, compared with 2,285 to 3,780 birds recorded in 1983 and 1984. They are most numerous around the Okavango River and the river systems of the Zambezi region, where their main modern-day host, domestic cattle, increased at least three-fold in the same time period.