Meet India’s spectacular hornbills Huge bills, spectacular headgear and flashy colors make hornbills one of the most spectacular group of birds in the Indian forest. The whoosh of the wing-beats of the Great Hornbill as it flies through the canopy, or the clanking of the casques as the males head-butt during mating jousts, never fail to exhilarate the senses. Hornbills have brightly colored skin around their eyes, flashy gular (throat) pouches and long eyelashes that could make an actress proud. Despite all these features, they are named for their over-sized bills. In most species these large bills are further exaggerated by a casque, a hollow structure over its upper beak which would make you wonder how these birds get airborne with such a top-heavy design. Make no mistake, they have great control over the bill thanks to their strong neck muscles, and can preen, build nests, catch prey with great finesse and fight spectacularly. The length of the bill is such that bird can actually see the tip of its bill, helping this picky bird in selecting the juiciest fruit, first by pressing it and testing for ripeness and later picking it, tossing it in the air, catching and gulping in one go. The fruits are gulped down whole though sometimes they carry them in their gular pouch for later consumption. They fly huge distances in the forest to visit fruiting trees, digesting the fruits and regurgitating the seeds along the way thus helping in dispersion, earning them the sobriquet farmer of the forest. The long bill also features in another remarkable facet of the lives of these monogamous birds -- its very incredible nesting ritual. Indian species of Hornbills nest in tree hollows, usually the same hollow every year. When the female is ready to lay eggs she sits in the nest and along with the male seals the mouth of the nest with mud, leaving just a slit from which only her bill can reach out. From now to the time her eggs hatch and chicks grow large enough to fledge, she stays locked in with the male providing her a steady supply of food; fruits, frogs, reptiles, and the occasional mammal or bird. Thats a lot of work for Daddy but he is sometimes helped by a young from a previous year’s brood. India has nine species of these beautiful birds, two of which appear in the list of top ten threatened hornbills of the world. You can see one species or the other in most parts of India though most species concentrations are in the East and North-east of the country.
Posted on: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 11:25:24 +0000