In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the yellow-billed oxpecker in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in Senegal.

[2] Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.

[3] When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson.

Both the English and scientific names arise from this species' habit of perching on large wild and domesticated mammals such as cattle and eating arthropod parasites.

[8] The yellow-billed oxpecker is 20 cm (7.9 in) long and has plain brown upperparts and head, buff underparts and a pale rump.