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Great Hornbill — printable fact sheet
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Great Hornbill
Buceros bicornis
Buceros bicornis of the forests of India and Southeast Asia carries a hollow, honeycomb-structured casque above its bill that is nearly weightless but acts as a resonating chamber, amplifying the pair's loud duetting barks and, in males, serving as a status badge. The bird also …
Did you know?
- Despite their enormous size and heavy-looking bills, Great Hornbills are agile flyers and can glide gracefully between trees in the dense forest canopy.
- A single breeding pair of great hornbills can disperse tens of thousands of seeds over a season, and foresters call them "farmers of the forest". The wing beats are audible from hundreds of metres away as a heavy whooshing, caused by air rushing through gaps in the base of the flight feathers, which lack full underwing coverts. Great hornbills can live over 50 years in captivity, and pairs appear to bond for life.
What I learned
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