The Great Hornbill is an impressive creature. It may have the most unique bill of all birds. The surprising thing is that the bill is very useful even though it looks like it might be a major handicap.
These birds live throughout southeast Asia, India and Indonesia.
They eat primarily fruit, but will supplement their diet with insects, small mammals and reptiles as well. The males are known to fly head-on into each other (think Big-horned Sheep in the air).
Classification:
Order: Coraciiformes
Family: Bucerotidae
Genus: Buceros
Species: B. bicornis
Photos:
Great Hornbill
"Photo taken on 6 Feb at the Singapore Jurong Bird Park."
Photo courtesy of Amsk
Great Indian Hornbill 563
"Great Indian Hornbill at Chester Zoo 15/07/06"
Photo courtesy of breganze981
Great Hornbill (Doppelhornvogel, Buceros bicornis )
"The Great Hornbill, Buceros bicornis also known as Greater Indian Hornbill, is the largest member of the hornbill family. Great Hornbill is distributed in the forests of India, the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, Indonesia. Their impressive size and colour have helped make them a part of local tribal cultures and rituals. The Great Hornbill is long-lived with a lifespan approaching 50 years in captivity. The Great Hornbill is a large bird, nearly four feet tall with a 60-inch wingspan, tail feathers reaching 36 inches and a weight of approximately six pounds. The most prominent feature of the hornbill is the bright yellow and black casque on top of its massive bill. The casque is hollow and serves no known purpose (“tame” hornbills are known to enjoy having them scratched) although they are believed to be the result of sexual selection. Male hornbills have been known to indulge in aerial casque butting flights. Females are smaller than males and have blue instead of red eyes. [Wikipedia] Canon 5D with Sigma 120-300/2,8 @120mm 1/1600s f/3.5 ISO 320 -5/3 EV Taken through a cage but due to the large aperture You cannot see the wires."
Photo courtesy of guenterleitenbauer
Great Hornbill
"Common name: Great Hornbill ♂ Scientific name: Buceros bicornis Distribution: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam Conservation status (IUCN): Near Threatened"
Photo courtesy of Stavenn
The weather was perfect for a trip to the zoo today. This Hornbill is usually fed fruit and supplements, but as you can see he found an rather unfortunate mouse in the aviary……….. Read more…
Video:
Commentary:
Jens Poehlker photographed the female excapee Great Hornbill (Buceros bicronis) at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve in later October 2008. This shows that the bird it is still around and well. Now that the Great and the Rhinoceros … Read more…
This is one of the local ornithological glories - the Great Hornbill. This guy is unusually cooperative, from a photographer’s point of view, sunning himself on the branch in the front of the aviary, not so high that I get only a shot … Read more…
Day 12 - Kuala Lumpur - Bird Park
Barbara’s already shown you the video of the rhinocerous hornbill at the beginning of the blog. There were several other species there: black hornbill, white-crowned hornbill, great hornbill , and Oriental pied hornbill. … Read more…
Here are some of our picks including the great hornbill, whose wingspan measures up to 2 metres. We saw some of these in flight and it was truly awesome. The sound was quite spectacular as well. Snakes: Deer: Waterfalls: … Read more…
CORBETT - Wildlifer’s Paradise :22nd to 28th Feb’09
… Oriental Pied & Great Hornbill, Dollar Bird, Crested or Himalayan Kingfisher, Blue-bearded bee-eater, Long-tailed Broadbill, Lesser Coucal, Red-breasted Parakeet, Himalayan Swiftlet, Small Pratincoles, Hen Harrier, Northern Goshawk, … Read more…
Update: According to LK, this is the great hornbill (Buceros bicornis). Lots of orange-bellied flowerpeckers (Dicaeum trigonostigma) were spotted on a figging fig tree. On the fig tree, we also saw several of these squirrels, … Read more…
