9 Things About Hornbills

1. Hornbills are famous for their huge bills, flattened and curved, with toothed edges and bony helmets over the upper jaw. These large birds have a common origin with the hoopoes. Today, hornbills inhabit only tropical Africa and Asia, but the oldest known species, the Geiseloceros robustus, lived in Saxony (northern Germany) in Eocene, 45-50 Ma ago. 35-40 Ma ago, Cryptornis antiquus lived in the Paris area.

2. The largest hornbills are the ground hornbills (Bucorvus) of the African savannas. They can reach a weight of 6 kg (14 pounds), but these two species differ from other hornbills in the fact that they do not wall their female inside the nest, as well as through other anatomical traits.

The largest proper hornbill is the Great Hornbill (Buceros bicornis) of the forests of southeastern Asia; it is 130 cm (52 in) long, has a wingspan of 1.5 m (60 in) and weighs up to 4 kg (9 pounds). The smallest species is the red-billed dwarf hornbill (Tockus camurus), which is 38 cm (1.3 ft) long, weighing only 100 grams. It inhabits the African rainforest.

3. These birds live in families (male, female and chicks) or groups of families (made of tens and hundreds of individuals); hierarchy manifests when eating. Smaller species are mainly insectivorous, while larger species are mainly fruit-eaters. They migrate for fruits during the dry season. Large kernels are not swallowed and smaller seeds pass through their digestive tube undamaged. In southeastern Asia, the hornbills consume the nuts of the strychnine tree (Strychnos nux-vomica), but they do not crush them and are thus protected from the poison in them.

14% of their food is animal (insects, snails, millipedes, lizards, small rodents, bird chicks and eggs). They follow legionary ants to catch insects chased away by them. They can even attack larger snakes but only in association with other individuals – they all hit the reptile with their large and sharp bills, while using their wings as shields.

Many hornbills fall victims to poisoned baits set for jackals or other mammals. Some hornbills associate with monkeys, hunting insects driven away by the monkeys and, at the same time, they come to understand the alarm calls the monkeys send forth when they see crowned eagles or people.

4. The hornbills are famous for their habit of immuring their nest. Before mating, the male offers the female a food gift (an insect or a fruit). The nest is usually made in a tree hole. Manipulating her bill like a trowel, the female uses clay and her own dejections to wall the entrance into the nest, inside of which she remains a prisoner. The male consolidates this "prison" on the exterior. This way, the nesting female is protected against monkeys, squirrels, martins or snakes. The female and the chicks are fed by the male with fruits, lizards, insects and frogs up to 10 times per hour. The male can bring up to 60 fruits at once, that he later regurgitates for the female. During the whole period of nesting, the male can bring up to 24,000 fruits for the female.

In order to not impede the growth of the chicks, the female inside the nest keeps her tail raised. When the chicks are well developed (at 6-7 weeks after hatching), the female breaks the entrance and starts helping the male in feeding the young. The entrance is walled back and will continue to remain so for the following 45-86 days, as long as caring for the chicks lasts.

The male molts successively, being always able to fly, while the female molts completely, while closed inside the nest. Large hornbills live up to 30 years.

The male communicates with the females found inside the nest via the noise made by their beating wing. The noise resembles the hiss of a steam engine, due to a special structure of the plumage that allows the sudden entrance of the air.

5. Hornbills are territorial. They execute intimidation flights, but rarely attack using their claws. Adults are attacked by large birds of prey, wild cats (serval, golden cat), genetas or martins.

6. Despite the huge size of their bills, they are relatively light, being made of spongy tissue. The helmet too is made of a pneumatic bone. Still, in order to support the huge bill, the first two neck vertebrae are fused together, a unique case amongst birds. The bill is also used when climbing, the same way in which parrots use their bills. In living birds, the bill and the helmet are vividly colored, because they smear them with the secretion of the uropygial gland (located near the cloaca).

7. These are the only birds that have eyelashes! Like most birds, they distinguish colors very well.

8. The calls of the hornbills are nothing pleasant; they may vary from a "devilish" laugh to load cackles.

9. The Dayak, Iban, Kalani and Punani people of Borneo practice a cult of the hornbills, whom they consider messengers of the spirits and symbols of virility. These people make masks and collars from the wing feathers and bills of these birds. Dayaks believe that the souls obey only to two divine powers: the sky, whose image is the hornbill, and the land with water, symbolized by the infernal snake.

In large species of horbills (like the Asian Buceros), the bill and the helmet are made of a compact bone resembling ivory - ritual objects are carved of it. These bills, called ho-ting by the Chinese people during the Ming dynasty, were more precious than gold, jade or ivory for this very reason.

The Senufu people (Africa) consider the ground hornbills as a messenger of the supreme god and a symbol of fecundity. In other places across the globe, farmers shoot these birds dead because they smash windowpanes with their bills, thinking that their own image is actually that of another individual; in order to stop them from breaking windows in this manner, locals always make sure they cover them with nets.

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