Red-billed hornbill

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Red-billed hornbills
Tockus erythrorhynchus, Tarangire, crop.jpg
A northern red-billed hornbill (T. erythrorhynchus) at Tarangire NP
Call of T. erythrorhynchus
Scientific classification
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Tockus (in part)

The red-billed hornbills are a group of hornbills found in the savannas and woodlands of sub-Saharan Africa. They are now usually split into five species, the northern red-billed hornbill (Tockus erythrorhynchus), western red-billed hornbill (T. kempi), Tanzanian red-billed hornbill (T. ruahae), southern red-billed hornbill (T. rufirostris) and Damara red-billed hornbill (T. damarensis), but some authorities consider the latter four all subspecies of Tockus erythrorhynchus. [1]

Contents

Description

Red Billed Hornbill Mating Display, crop.jpg
Breeding display at Buffalo Springs National Reserve, Kenya – Tockus rufirostris however, does not lift the wings in display. [2]
Tockus kempi at nest, Gambia.jpg
T. kempi at a nest in The Gambia

This group of conspicuous birds have mainly whitish underparts and head, grey upperparts, long tails, and a long curved red bill which lacks a casque. The sexes are similar, but the female has a smaller bill. They are generally large, at 42 centimetres (17 in) long, but the entire group is considered one of the smaller hornbills.

Behaviour

Breeding

During incubation, the female lays three to six white eggs in a tree hole that has been converted to a nest, which is blocked off with a plaster of mud, droppings and fruit pulp, with her inside, where she remains for a time after the eggs are hatched. The nest is built by both parents. Once the mother is inside the nest, there is only one narrow aperture, just big enough for the male to transfer food gathered from the outside habitat, to the mother and the chicks. When the chicks and the female are too big for the nest, the mother breaks out and rebuilds the wall, leaving the chicks inside for their continued protection from predators. Then both parents continued to feed the chicks.

Nesting

The female red-billed hornbill protects her young against intruders by building a wall across the opening of her nest. She then seals herself in and brings up her chicks in the enclosed space.

Feeding

They are omnivorous, taking and eating insects, fruit, seeds and even small rodents. [3] They feed mainly on the ground and will form flocks outside the breeding season.

Related Research Articles

Hornbill Family of birds

Hornbills (Bucerotidae) are a family of bird found in tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia and Melanesia. They are characterized by a long, down-curved bill which is frequently brightly coloured and sometimes has a casque on the upper mandible. Both the common English and the scientific name of the family refer to the shape of the bill, "buceros" being "cow horn" in Greek. Hornbills have a two-lobed kidney. They are the only birds in which the first and second neck vertebrae are fused together; this probably provides a more stable platform for carrying the bill. The family is omnivorous, feeding on fruit and small animals. They are monogamous breeders nesting in natural cavities in trees and sometimes cliffs. A number of mainly insular species of hornbill with small ranges are threatened with extinction, namely in Southeast Asia.

African grey hornbill Species of bird

The African grey hornbill is a member of the hornbill family of mainly tropical near-passerine birds found in the Old World. It is a widespread and common resident breeder in much of sub-Saharan Africa and into Arabia. The African grey hornbill has escaped or been deliberately released into Florida, USA, but there is no evidence that the population is breeding and may only persist due to continuing releases or escapes.

African pied hornbill Species of bird

The African pied hornbill is a bird of the hornbill family, a family of tropical near-passerine birds found in the Old World.

Sri Lanka grey hornbill Species of bird

The Sri Lanka grey hornbill is a bird in the hornbill family and a widespread and common endemic resident breeder in Sri Lanka. Hornbills are a family of tropical near-passerine birds found in the Old World.

Malabar grey hornbill Species of bird

The Malabar grey hornbill is a hornbill endemic to the Western Ghats and associated hills of southern India. They have a large beak but lack the casque that is prominent in some other hornbill species. They are found mainly in dense forest and around rubber, arecanut or coffee plantations. They move around in pairs or small groups, feeding on figs and other forest fruits. Their loud cackling and laughing call makes them familiar to people living in the region.

Monteiros hornbill Species of hornbill

The Monteiro's hornbill is a species of hornbill that is native to the dry woodlands of southwestern Africa. It is a common, near-endemic species in Namibia, with a total population estimated at 340,000 individuals.

Southern yellow-billed hornbill Species of bird

The southern yellow-billed hornbill is a hornbill found in southern Africa. Yellow-billed hornbills feed mainly on the ground, where they forage for seeds, small insects, spiders and scorpions. This hornbill species is a common and widespread resident of dry thornveldt and broad-leafed woodlands. They can often be seen along roads and water courses.

Malabar pied hornbill Species of bird

The Malabar pied hornbill, also known as lesser pied hornbill, is a bird in the hornbill family, a family of tropical near-passerine birds found in the Old World.

Von der Deckens hornbill Species of bird

Von der Decken's hornbill is a hornbill found in East Africa, especially to the east of the East African Rift, from Ethiopia south to Tanzania. It is found mainly in thorn scrub and similar arid habitats. Jackson's hornbill is often treated as a subspecies of it. It was named after the German explorer Baron Karl Klaus von der Decken (1833–1865).

Wrinkled hornbill Species of bird

The wrinkled hornbill or Sunda wrinkled hornbill is a medium-large hornbill which is found in forest in the Thai-Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Borneo.

Indian grey hornbill Species of bird

The Indian grey hornbill is a common hornbill found on the Indian subcontinent. It is mostly arboreal and is commonly sighted in pairs. It has grey feathers all over the body with a light grey or dull white belly. The horn is black or dark grey with a casque extending to the point of curvature of the horn. It is one of the few hornbill species found in urban areas in many cities where they are able to make use of large trees in avenues.

Rhinoceros hornbill Species of bird

The rhinoceros hornbill is a large species of forest hornbill (Bucerotidae). In captivity it can live for up to 35 years. It is found in lowland and montane, tropical and subtropical climates and in mountain rain forests up to 1,400 metres in Borneo, Sumatra, Java, the Malay Peninsula, Singapore, and southern Thailand.

Wreathed hornbill Species of bird

The wreathed hornbill is an Old World tropical bird of the hornbill family Bucerotidae, also called bar-pouched wreathed hornbill due to its distinctive blue-black band on its lower throat sac. It is named after its characteristic long, curved bill that develops ridges, or wreaths, on the casque of the upper mandible in adults. Males are black with a rufous crown, a white upper breast and face, and a yellow featherless throat. Females are uniformly black with a blue throat and are slightly smaller than males.

Austens brown hornbill Species of bird

Austen's brown hornbill is a species of hornbill found in forests from northeastern India and south to Vietnam and northern Thailand. It is sometimes included as a subspecies of Tickell's brown hornbill.

White-crowned hornbill Species of bird

The white-crowned hornbill, also known as the long-crested hornbill or white-crested hornbill, is a species of hornbill.

Oriental pied hornbill Species of bird

The oriental pied hornbill is an Indo-Malayan pied hornbill, a large canopy-dwelling bird belonging to the family Bucerotidae. Two other common names for this species are Sunda pied hornbill (convexus) and Malaysian pied hornbill.

Channel-billed cuckoo Species of bird

The channel-billed cuckoo is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. It is monotypic within the genus Scythrops. The species is the largest brood parasite in the world, and the largest cuckoo.

Northern red-billed hornbill Species of bird

The northern red-billed hornbill is a species of hornbill in the family Bucerotidae. It is found from southern Mauritania through Somalia and northeast Tanzania. There are five species of red-billed hornbills recognized, but all five were once considered conspecific and some authorities still classify the others as subspecies of Tockus erythrorhynchus.

Western red-billed hornbill Species of bird

The western red-billed hornbill is a species of hornbill in the family Bucerotidae. It is found from Senegal and Gambia to southern Mauritania and western Mali. There are five species of red-billed hornbills generally recognized now, but all five were once considered conspecific. Some authorities still categorize the group as Tockus erythrorhynchus with the remaining four as its subspecies

Damara red-billed hornbill Species of bird

The Damara red-billed hornbill is a species of hornbill in the family Bucerotidae. It is found in southwest Angola and northern Namibia. All five red-billed hornbills were formerly considered conspecific.

References

  1. "Red-billed Hornbill". www.hbw.com. Handbook of Birds of the World online. Retrieved 12 May 2018.
  2. Sinclair, Ian; Ryan, Peter (2010). Birds of Africa south of the Sahara (2nd ed.). Cape Town: Struik Nature. pp. 290–291. ISBN   9781770076235.
  3. "Twitch".