A mutualistic relationship between the long-tailed fiscal shrike Lanius cabanisi and red-billed buffalo weavers Bubalornis niger

A mutualistic relationship between a flock of red-billed buffalo weavers Bubalornis niger and one individual of Long-tailed Fiscal Shrike Lanius cabanisi is described. The shrike benefited from the grasshoppers and other insects ftushed at ground level by the foraging buffalo weavers, and followed them. The latter, in turn, took advantage of the antipredator behaviour and alarm calls of the shrike. In two cases when a predator approached, once the buffalo weavers ftew away for a time before re-associating again with the shrike, and the second time they simply « froze » temporarily when an hawk ftew over them. Both species followed each other for one and a half hours, but there was no « leader » or « follower » in this polyspecific association, the two species playing bath roles in tur