Bird suddenly disappears completely down into rhino's ear

The video shows a bird picking at the ear of a rhinoceros before disappearing with its whole body inside the rhino’s ear.
The African wild hosts an incredible variety of wild animals. While each animal in the wild is unique on its own, it is incredible to see how different types of animals interact and associate with each other. One example of such an interesting relationship is that of the oxpecker bird who lives in association with medium to large mammalian herbivores in the African wild. The hosts that oxpecker birds use range from impala, warthog, zebra, giraffe, buffalo, rhino, and hippo. These birds spend their daylight hours picking and consuming ticks and parasites out of the pelage of their hosts in a win-win relationship known as mutualistic symbiosis. Both species involved benefit from the relationship. The birds get a daily guaranteed meal, while their hosts receive a grooming, keeping their skin and hair free from itchy ticks and parasites that can cause disease. Watching these birds in action is always a fascinating experience while on safari. During a safari in the Kruger National Park, we came across a herd of rhino. Almost every rhino had a bird or two on it. I started filming one oxpecker bird on a rhino’s head. It was bouncing around on the rhino’s forehead before targeting one of the rhino’s ears. The bird was hanging onto the rhino’s ear like it would onto a branch in a tree. The bird started picking at the ticks and parasites that end up in the rhino’s ear while it is grazing head-down through the long grass. The bird had its head inside the ear of the rhino, looking for some juicy pickings. The next moment the bird decided it was going to have a look a little deeper down the rhino’s ear. To our amazement, the bird went into the rhino’s ear with its whole body and disappeared. It looked so bizarre to see this bird just disappearing into the rhino’s ear. The best of it all was that the rhino tolerated the bird inside its ear and never got agitated. Even more incredible was that the bird remained in there for almost a minute in which time my camera battery ran out, just missing the bird exiting the rhino’s ear again. Staying inside the rhino’s ear for that long must have been worth the while. The rhino looked happy with its clean ears and the bird surely got a fat meal out of the deal. Incredible Mother Nature at her best.