Bird species
The
great hornbill
(
Buceros bicornis
), also known as the
concave-casqued hornbill
,
great Indian hornbill
or
great pied hornbill
, is one of the larger members of the
hornbill
family. It occurs in the
Indian subcontinent
and
Southeast Asia
. It is predominantly
frugivorous
, but also preys on small mammals, reptiles and birds. It has been listed as
Vulnerable
on the
IUCN Red List
since 2018. It is known to have lived for nearly 50 years in captivity. Due to its large size and colour, and importance in many tribal cultures and rituals, the
Government of Kerala
declared it as the official
Kerala
state bird.
Taxonomy
[
edit
]
The great hornbill was
formally described
by the Swedish naturalist
Carl Linnaeus
in 1758 in the
tenth edition
of his
Systema Naturae
. He placed it with the
rhinoceros hornbill
in the
genus
Buceros
and coined the
binomial name
Buceros bicornis
. Linnaeus specified the
location
as China.
[3]
The genus name is from
Latin
becerus
meaning "horned like an ox" which in turn is from the
Ancient Greek
bouker?s which combines
bous
meaning "ox" with
ker?s
meaning "horn". The specific
bicornis
is Latin and means "two-horned".
[4]
The species is
monotypic
: no
subspecies
are recognised.
[5]
The species was formerly broken into subspecies
cavatus
, from the
Western Ghats
, and
homrai
, the nominate form from the sub-Himalayan forests. The subspecies from Sumatra was sometimes called
cristatus
.
[6]
Variation across populations is mainly in size, Himalayan birds being larger than those from further south, and the species is now usually considered
monotypic
.
[7]
[8]
Description
[
edit
]
The great hornbill is a large bird, 95?130 cm (37?51 in) long, with a 152 cm (60 in) wingspan and a weight of 2 to 4 kg (4.4 to 8.8 lb). The average weight of 7 males is 3 kg (6.6 lb) whereas that of 3 females is 2.59 kg (5.7 lb).
[9]
It is the heaviest, but not the longest, Asian hornbill.
[9]
[10]
With the separation of the
ground hornbills
into a separate family,
Bucorvidae
, the great hornbill reigns as the heaviest of all
typical hornbills
.
[9]
[11]
Females are smaller than males and have bluish-white instead of red eyes, although the orbital skin is pinkish. Like other hornbills, they have prominent "eyelashes".
[
citation needed
]
The most prominent feature of the hornbill is the bright yellow and black
casque
on top of its massive bill. The casque appears U-shaped when viewed from the front, and the top is concave, with two ridges along the sides that form points in the front, whence the Latin species epithet
bicornis
(two-horned). The back of the casque is reddish in females, while the underside of the front and back of the casque is black in males.
[
citation needed
]
The casque is hollow and serves no known purpose, although it is thought to be the result of
sexual selection
. Male hornbills indulge in aerial casque butting, with birds striking each other in flight.
[12]
The male spreads the
preen gland
secretion, which is yellow, onto the primary feathers and bill to give them the bright yellow colour.
[13]
The
commissure
of the beak is black and has a serrated edge which becomes worn with age.
[
citation needed
]
The wing beats are heavy, and the sound produced by birds in flight can be heard from a distance. This sound has been likened to the puffing of a steam locomotive starting up. The flight involves stiff flaps followed by glides with the fingers splayed and upcurled.
[14]
[15]
Like other members of the hornbill family, they have highly
pneumatized bones
, with hollow air cavities extending to the tips of the wing bones. This anatomical feature was noted by
Richard Owen
, who dissected a specimen that died at the Zoological Society of London in 1833.
[16]
Distribution and habitat
[
edit
]
The great hornbill is native to the forests of
India
,
Bhutan
,
Nepal
,
mainland Southeast Asia
and
Sumatra
.
[17]
Its distribution is fragmented in the Western Ghats and in the foothills of the Himalayas. Deforestation has reduced its range in many parts of India such as in the Kolli hills where it was recorded in the 1860s.
[18]
It prefers dense old growth unlogged forests in hilly regions.
[19]
[20]
It appears to be dependent on large stretches of rain forests.
[21]
In Thailand, the
home range
of males was found to be about 3.7 km (2.3 mi) during the breeding season and about 14.7 km (9.1 mi) during the non-breeding season.
[22]
Molecular approaches to the study of its population diversity have been attempted.
[23]
Behaviour and ecology
[
edit
]
Food and feeding
[
edit
]
Great hornbills are usually seen in small parties, with larger groups sometimes aggregating at fruit trees. A congregation of 150 to 200 birds has been recorded in southeastern Bhutan.
[14]
In the wild, the great hornbill's diet consists mainly of fruit.
Figs
are particularly important as a food source.
[24]
Vitex altissima
has been noted as another important food source. Great hornbills also forage on lipid-rich fruits of the families
Lauraceae
and
Myristicaceae
such as
Persea
,
Alseodaphne
and
Myristica
.
[25]
They obtain water entirely from their diet of fruits. They are important dispersers of many forest tree species.
[26]
They will also eat small mammals, birds,
[27]
small reptiles and insects.
[28]
Lion-tailed macaques
have been seen to forage alongside these hornbills.
[29]
They forage along branches, moving along by hopping, looking for insects, nestling birds and small lizards, tearing up bark and examining them. Prey are caught, tossed in the air and swallowed. A rare squirrel, the
Travancore flying squirrel
(
Petinomys fuscocapillus
) has been eaten, and
Indian scops owl
(
Otus bakkamoena
),
jungle owlet
(
Glaucidium radiatum
) and
Sri Lanka green pigeon
(
Treron pompadora
) have been taken as prey in the
Western Ghats
.
[30]
-
Close-up of great hornbill male in Mangaon showing red iris and black on underside of casque
-
Great hornbill eating a fledgling bird
-
A female great hornbill carries food (fruit of
Myristica beddomei
) in her beak to feed the chick that is still inside the tree cavity nest
-
A female great hornbill (above) with a male (below) in Nelliyampathy
Breeding
[
edit
]
During the breeding season (January to April
[7]
) great hornbills become very vocal. They make loud duets, beginning with a loud "kok" given about once a second by the male, to which the female joins in. The pair then calls in unison, turning into a rapid mixture of roars and barks.
[30]
They prefer mature forests for nesting. Large, tall and old trees, particularly emergents that rise above the canopy, seem to be preferred for nesting.
[31]
[32]
They form monogamous pair bonds and live in small groups of 2-40 individuals. Group courtship displays involving up to 20 birds have been observed.
[33]
The female hornbill builds a nest in the hollow of a large tree trunk, sealing the opening with a plaster made up mainly of feces.
[6]
[34]
[35]
She remains imprisoned there, relying on the male to bring her food, until the chicks are half developed. During this period the female undergoes a complete moult. The young chicks have no feathers and appear very plump. The mother is fed by her mate through a slit in the seal. The clutch consists of one or two eggs, which she incubates for 38?40 days. The female voids feces through the nest slit, as do the chicks from the age of two weeks.
[30]
Once the female emerges from the nest, the chicks seal it again.
[7]
The young birds have no trace of a casque. After the second year the front extremity separates from the culmen, and in the third year it becomes a transverse crescent with the two edges growing outwards and upwards, while the anterior widens to the width of the rear end. Full development takes five years.
[36]
Roosting
[
edit
]
Roost sites are used regularly and birds arrive punctually at sunset from long distances, following the same routes each day. Several tall trees in the vicinity may be used, the birds choosing the highest branches with little foliage. They jockey for position until late at dusk. When sleeping they draw their neck back and the bill is held upwards at an angle.
[14]
Threats
[
edit
]
The great hornbill is threatened mainly by habitat loss due to deforestation. It is hunted for its meat, fat and body parts like casque and tail feathers, which are used as adornments.
[1]
Tribal peoples hunt the great Indian hornbill for its various parts. The beaks and head are used in charms and the flesh is believed to be medicinal. Young birds are considered a delicacy.
[14]
Declines in population have been noted in many areas such as Cambodia.
[37]
Tribesmen in parts of northeastern India use the feathers for head-dresses, and the skulls are often worn as decorations.
[38]
[39]
The
Sema Nagas
consider the flesh unfit for eating, believing that it produces sores on their feet, as in the bird. When dancing with the feathers of the hornbill, they avoid eating vegetables, as doing so is also believed to produce the same sores on the feet.
[40]
Conservation
[
edit
]
The great hornbill is listed in
CITES Appendix I
. It has been listed as
Vulnerable
on the
IUCN Red List
since 2018.
[1]
Conservation programmes have attempted to provide tribes with feathers from captive hornbills and ceramic casques to substitute for natural ones.
[41]
In captivity
[
edit
]
Very few hornbills are held in captivity, and few of them breed well. Females at the nests are extremely easy to capture, and birds caught in the wild are mostly female. Breeding them in captivity has been notoriously difficult, with fewer than a dozen successful attempts. Their extreme selectivity for mates and their long and strong pair bonds make them difficult to maintain for breeding.
[42]
[43]
[44]
[45]
Captive great hornbills eat fruits and meat, a healthy diet consisting mostly of fruit and some source of protein. A few have been
tamed
in captivity but their behaviour in captivity is described as highly strung. Captive specimens bask in the sun with outstretched wings.
[46]
In culture
[
edit
]
The great hornbill is called
homrai
in Nepal and
banrao
in
Mussoorie
, both meaning "King of the Jungle".
[47]
It is the official
state bird
of the Indian states of
Kerala
and
Arunachal Pradesh
.
[48]
Use as a symbol
[
edit
]
A great hornbill named William was the model for the logo of the
Bombay Natural History Society
and the name of the society's building.
Norman Kinnear
described William as follows in the obituary of
Walter Samuel Millard
:
[49]
Every visitor to the Society's room in Apollo Street will remember the Great Indian Hornbill, better known as the "office canary" which lived in a cage behind Millard's chair in Phipson & Co.'s office for 26 years and died in 1920. It is said its death was caused by swallowing a piece of wire, but in the past "William" had swallowed a lighted cigar without ill effects and I for my part think that the loss of his old friend was the principal cause.
[50]
[51]
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Other sources
[
edit
]
- Kannan, R. (1993). "Saving the Great Indian Hornbill".
Hornbill
magazine. Bombay Natural History Society 1993(4):4?7.
- Kannan, R. (1994).
Ecology and Conservation of the Great Pied Hornbill (
Buceros bicornis
) in the Western Ghats of southern India
. Ph.D. thesis, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
- Kannan, Ragupathy (1994). "Conservation ecology of the Great Hornbill in the Western Ghats, southern India".
OBC Bull
. 19: 13.
- Kannan, R. and James, D. A. (2007). "Phenological studies of hornbill fruit trees in tropical rainforests: methodologies, problems, and pitfalls". pp. 155?166 in Kemp, A.C. and M.I. Kemp (eds.).
The Active Management of Hornbills for Conservation
. CD-ROM Proceedings of the 4th International Hornbill Conference, Mabula Game Lodge, Bela Bela, South Africa. Naturalists and Nomads, Pretoria.
- Kannan, R. and James, D. A. (2008).
"Fig trees (
Ficus
), captive elephants, and conservation of hornbills and other frugivores in an Indian wildlife sanctuary"
.
J. Bombay. Nat. Hist. Soc.
105(2):238-242.
- Poonswad, P. (1995). "Nest site characteristics of four sympatric species of hornbills in Khao Yai National Park, Thailand".
Ibis
137: 183?191.
External links
[
edit
]