Hornbill

Hornbills (Family Bucerotidae) are a group of birds whose bill is shaped like a cow's horn, but without a twist, sometimes with a casque on the upper mandible. Frequently, the bill is brightly coloured.

Both common English and scientific name of the family refer to the shape of the bill, "Buceros" being "cow horn" in Greek.

The Bucerotidae Family includes 57 species, 9 of them endemic of the Southern part of Africa. During incubation, the female lays up to six white eggs locked within the nest cavity, made of mud, droppings and fruit pulp. There is only one narrow aperture, big enough for the male to transfer food to the mother and the chicks.

When the chicks and the female are too big to fit in the nest, the mother breaks out and rebuilds the wall, then both parents feed the chicks. In some species the chicks themselves rebuild the wall unaided.

Most are arboreal birds of dense forest, but the large Ground Hornbills, as their name implies, are terrestrial birds of open savannah. Their distribution ranges from Africa south of the Sahara, tropical Asia, Philippines and Solomon Islands.

Hornbills are omnivorous birds, eating fruit, insects and small animals.

In the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, Hornbills are separated from the Coraciiformes, which also includes kingfishers, bee-eaters and rollers as a separate order Bucerotiformes.

Some species have different plumages for each sex. The blue throat of the Abbysinian Ground Hornbill pictured above shows it to be an adult female.

Order:Coraciiformes

• Alcedinidae (river kingfishers)
• Halcyonidae (tree kingfishers)
• Cerylidae (water or belted kingfishers)
• Todidae todies
• Momotidae motmots
• Meropidae bee-eaters
• Leptosomatidae Cuckoo Roller
• Brachypteraciidae ground rollers
• Coraciidae rollers
• Upupidae Hoopoe
• Phoeniculidae woodhoopoes
• Bucerotidae hornbills
• Bucerotidae
  • White-crested Hornbill, Tockus albocristatus
  • Black Dwarf Hornbill, Tockus hartlaubi
  • Red-billed Dwarf Hornbill, Tockus camurus
  • Monteiro's Hornbill, Tockus monteiri
  • Red-billed Hornbill, Tockus erythrorhynchus
  • Eastern Yellow-billed Hornbill, Tockus flavirostris
  • Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill, Tockus leucomelas
  • Jackson's Hornbill, Tockus jacksoni
  • Von der Decken's Hornbill, Tockus deckeni
  • Crowned Hornbill, Tockus alboterminatus
  • Bradfield's Hornbill, Tockus bradfieldi
  • African Pied Hornbill, Tockus fasciatus
  • Hemprich's Hornbill, Tockus hemprichii
  • African Grey Hornbill, Tockus nasutus
  • Pale-billed Hornbill, Tockus pallidirostris
  • Malabar Grey Hornbill, Ocyceros griseus
  • Sri Lanka Grey Hornbill, Ocyceros gingalensis
  • Indian Grey Hornbill, Ocyceros birostris
  • Malabar Pied Hornbill, Anthracoceros coronatus
  • Oriental Pied Hornbill, Anthracoceros albirostris
  • Black Hornbill, Anthracoceros malayanus
  • Palawan Hornbill, Anthracoceros marchei
  • Sulu Hornbill, Anthracoceros montani
  • Rhinoceros Hornbill, Buceros rhinoceros
  • Great Hornbill, Buceros bicornis
  • Rufous Hornbill, Buceros hydrocorax
  • Helmeted Hornbill, Buceros vigil
  • Brown Hornbill, Anorrhinus austeni
  • Rusty-cheeked Hornbill, Anorrhinus tickelli
  • Bushy-crested Hornbill, Anorrhinus galeritus
  • Luzon Hornbill, Penelopides manillae
  • Mindoro Hornbill, Penelopides mindorensis
  • Tarictic Hornbill, Penelopides panini
  • Samar Hornbill, Penelopides samarensis
  • Mindanao Hornbill, Penelopides affinis
  • Sulawesi Hornbill, Penelopides exarhatus
  • White-crowned Hornbill, Aceros comatus
  • Rufous-necked Hornbill, Aceros nipalensis
  • Wrinkled Hornbill, Aceros corrugatus
  • Writhe-billed Hornbill, Aceros waldeni
  • Writhed Hornbill, Aceros leucocephalus
  • Knobbed Hornbill, Aceros cassidix
  • Wreathed Hornbill, Aceros undulatus
  • Narcondam Hornbill, Aceros narcondami
  • Sumba Hornbill, Aceros everetti
  • Plain-pouched Hornbill, Aceros subruficollis
  • Blyth's Hornbill, Aceros plicatus
  • Trumpeter Hornbill, Ceratogymna bucinator
  • Piping Hornbill, Ceratogymna fistulator
  • Silvery-cheeked Hornbill, Ceratogymna brevis
  • Black-and-white-casqued Hornbill, Ceratogymna subcylindricus
  • Brown-cheeked Hornbill, Ceratogymna cylindricus
  • White-thighed Hornbill, Ceratogymna albotibialis
  • Black-casqued Hornbill, Ceratogymna atrata
  • Yellow-casqued Hornbill, Ceratogymna elata
  • Abyssinian Ground Hornbill, Bucorvus abyssinicus
  • Southern Ground Hornbill, Bucorvus leadbeateri

Red-billed Hornbill
Tockus erythrorhychus

References

Gordon Lindsay Maclean - Robert's Birds of South Africa, 6th Edition

Hornbill is also the magazine of the Bombay Natural History Society. This society's icon is a Great Indian Hornbill sitting on a branch.