Tockus

Tockus
A female southern red-billed hornbill
Call of a northern red-billed hornbill
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Bucerotiformes
Family:	Bucerotidae
Genus:	Tockus Lesson, 1830
Type species
Buceros erythrorhynchus [1] Temminck, 1823
Species
See text.

Tockus is a genus of birds in the hornbill family, Bucerotidae, that are native to Africa.

Taxonomy

The genus Tockus was introduced in 1830 by the French naturalist René Lesson. He listed three species in his new genus but did not specify a type species. ^[2] In 1840 the English zoologist George Gray selected the type as Buceros erythrorhynchus, the northern red-billed hornbill. ^{[3] [4]} The genus name is derived from a word used by local people in Senegal for a hornbill. ^{[5] [6]}

Description

Hornbills in the genus Tockus are medium-sized African birds with triangular shaped curved bills. They can be found in tropical and sub-tropical African grasslands, forests and savannahs. They all have long tail feathers which are black on the exterior and white on the interior.

Species

The genus contains the following ten species: ^[7]

• Tanzanian red-billed hornbill, Tockus ruahae – central Tanzania
• Western red-billed hornbill, Tockus kempi – Senegal and Gambia to south Mauritania and west Mali
• Damara red-billed hornbill, Tockus damarensis – southwest Angola, north Namibia and west Botswana
• Southern red-billed hornbill, Tockus rufirostris – Malawi and Zambia to south Angola and Transvaal
• Northern red-billed hornbill, Tockus erythrorhynchus – south Mauritania through Somalia to northeast Tanzania
• Monteiro's hornbill, Tockus monteiri – southwest Angola to central Namibia
• Von der Decken's hornbill, Tockus deckeni – Ethiopia and Somalia to central Tanzania
• Jackson's hornbill, Tockus jacksoni – south South Sudan, southwest Ethiopia, northeast Uganda and west Kenya
• Southern yellow-billed hornbill, Tockus leucomelas – south
• Eastern yellow-billed hornbill, Tockus flavirostris – Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia to north Tanzania

References

1. "Bucerotidae". aviansystematics.org. The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
2. Lesson, René (1831). Traité d'Ornithologie, ou Tableau Méthodique (in French). Paris: F.G. Levrault. p. 252, livraison 4. Published in 8 livraisons between 1830 and 1831. For the publication date see: Dickinson, E.C.; Overstreet, L.K.; Dowsett, R.J.; Bruce, M.D. (2011). Priority! The Dating of Scientific Names in Ornithology: a Directory to the literature and its reviewers. Northampton, UK: Aves Press. p. 119. ISBN   978-0-9568611-1-5.
3. Gray, George Robert (1840). A List of the Genera of Birds : with an Indication of the Typical Species of Each Genus. London: R. and J.E. Taylor. p. 50.
4. Peters, James Lee, ed. (1945). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 5. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 254.
5. Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc de (1780). "Le tock". Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux (in French). Vol. 13. Paris: De l'Imprimerie Royale. p. 210.
6. Jobling, James A. "Tockus". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 9 October 2025.
7. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (December 2023). "Mousebirds, Cuckoo Roller, trogons, hoopoes, hornbills". IOC World Bird List Version 14.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 9 January 2024.

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