Great Hornbill

Great Hornbill with the scientific name Buceros bicornis is a large bird of the hornbill family.

They are also known by other names like Great Indian Hornbill or Indian horn bill or concave-casqued hornbill or Great Pied Hornbill or Asian Hornbill.

This bird is found in various forests of India, Nepal, Sumatra and Malay Peninsula. This hornbill bird with the large bill is a state bird of various states like Kerala and Arunachal Pradesh of India. The quick classification of Great horn bill is as below,

Scientific Classification

Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Chordata
Class	Aves
Order	Coraciiformes
Family	Bucerotidae
Genus	Buceros
Species	B. bicornis

Physical Characteristics:

The Great Hornbill is a heavier bird with very large bill and the top of the bill is colored with bright yellow and black casque. The body is brightly colored with yellow due to gland oil. The casque looks U-shaped and is concave when viewed from the front and the top with two ridges along the sides that create points in the front.The body is colored black with white feathers on the neck, flight feathers and wings.


The casque is hollow and is believed to be the result of sexual selection. They have high pneumatized bones with hollow air cavities. Male hornbills tend to indulge in aerial casque butting, with birds striking each other during flight.The flight has stiff flaps followed by glides.

Females appear smaller than males and have bluish-white eyes instead of red and the orbital skin is pink color.

The casque of the bird is believed to act as an amplification chamber which helps the bird to make loud calls. These birds have prominent eyelashes just like other hornbills.

The male spreads the yellow colored preen gland secretion onto the primaries and bill to render a bright yellow color.The back of the casque is usually reddish in females while in males, the back of the casque and underside of the front is black. They beat the wings heavily and loud noise is produced which could be heard from at a far distance.

They at times fly at great height over forests. This bird is 95 to 120 cm (38 to 47 inches) long and weighs about 2.15 to 4 kg (4.7 to 8.8 lbs). The wing size is 152 cm (60 inches).

Behaviour:

They beat the wings heavily and loud noise is produced which could be heard from a far distance. They find shelter in the holes of large and tall trees and cover large area of the forest making itself busy in search of food. Few birds are held in captivity and only few breed well. While sleeping, they take their neck back and the bill is held upwards at an angle.

Food Habits:

Great Indian hornbill is mostly frugivorous and prefers feeding on fruits of various trees and figs. Their diet also comprises of small mammals, insects, snakes, reptiles and small birds. They are very helpful in a part of gardening as they disperse the seeds of fruits across the rain forests after eating the fruits. They are usually seen in large groups eating fruits. They also forage on various lipid rich fruits and obtain the water from the fruits.

Distribution and Habitat:

This hornbill species is distributed in the range of South and Southeast Asia. In South Asia, they are typically found in forest areas of Western Ghats and along the Himalayas. Their distribution also extends to Malaya, Thailand, Sumatra and Burma. They substantially inhabit the hilly regions and they are dependent on large stretches of forest rather than at human settlements. They also inhabit other forests like deciduous, evergreen and moist forests. They find shelter in the holes of trees too.

The mating process of the Great Hornbill begins with a great clash with males to win the mate.

They became very vocal during this season. Hornbill forms a monogamous pair and lives in a group of 2 to 40. They start with the loud "kok" sound once a second.

They climb into an empty tree hole when the female is ready to lay eggs. Then the male collects mud and dung pieces in order to wall the hole so as to protect the female and its egg from the predators. While building the wall, the male and female leave a small opening so that the male gives the food to female through that small slit like opening.

Female hornbills construct nests in hollows of large tree trunks and the opening is sometimes sealed with a plaster mainly containing faecal material. The female incubates the eggs for about 25 to 40 days staying in the hole which has a small opening. The female usually lays one or two eggs in a single clutch. The young chicks don't have feathers and look very chubby. The young birds have no mark of a casque at the beginning. At its second year, the front extremity isolates from the culmen and in the third year it totally gives a transverse crescent with the two edges emerging outwards and upwards while the anterior portion gets broader to equal the hind part in width. It takes five years for the full development to occur. These birds regularly roost and reach the roost sites from any distance once the sun is set. They considerably follow the same distance always.

Threats and conservation:

the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) has categorized Great Indian Horn bill as "Near Threatened" due to the habitat loss and because of hunting. They are also listed in the Appendix I of the CITES.

As a symbol:

The Great Hornbill is considered as the State bird of Arunachal Pradesh, Kerala and Myanmar. A Great Hornbill by the name was made the model for the logo or symbol of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) which is best known for its office canary.

1. This species is said to be the largest of all the hornbill species found on the Indian subcontinent
2. The beat of the wing of a great hornbill can be heard more than half a mile.
3. Great hornbill can consume about 150 figs at a maximum for one meal.
4. Some hornbills die after nesting process since they get exhausted
5. Nagas while dancing with the hornbills feather would avoid eating vegetables since they believe that it would develop sore feet.
6. The hornbill is called "homrai" and "banrao" in Nepal both denotes "King of the forest".