Fire hornbill
| Fire hornbill | ||||||||||
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Fire hornbill |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||
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| Buceros hydrocorax | ||||||||||
| Linnaeus , 1766 |
The fire hornbill ( Buceros hydrocorax ), also known as the red-brown hornbill , is one of the species of the hornbill family that occurs in the Philippines. It is the largest hornbill species there. There are three subspecies in the large distribution area of the firehorn bird.
Like all hornbills, the fire hornbill is also a cave breeder. The female spends up to three months walled in a tree hollow. During this time, the male first supplies them and later also the young birds with food. What is unusual for hornbills is that the young birds have plumage that is clearly different from that of the adult birds.
The IUCN states that the fire hornbird population is endangered ( vulnerable ).
description
The fire hornbill reaches a body length of 60 to 65 centimeters and a weight of 1.1 to a little under 2 kilograms. Of the total length of this hornbill species, the male has an average of 33.4 centimeters and the females 30.2 centimeters of the tail. The beak in the males reaches a length between 19.5 and 21.5 centimeters, in the females it remains somewhat smaller and has a length of 16.9 to 20.5 centimeters. The gender dimorphism is only weak.
Appearance of the nominate form
The male's forehead, cheeks and chin are featherless and the bare skin is black. A white band runs down the throat. The crown of the head, the neck, the upper chest, the thighs, the belly and the under tail-covers are reddish cinnamon in color. The wing covers, the back and the upper tail coverts are dark brown. The wings are black with isabel-colored tips on the outside flags. The tail is white, but is occasionally discolored yellow. The beak and horn are discolored red from the rump secretion. The beak horn is large and ends at the height of the beak tip. The eyes are red, the orbital ring is yellow, the feet are red-brown.
The female is similar to the male, but remains a little smaller. The beak and the beak horn are without any black markings. The orbital ring is black, the eyes are white.
The young birds have a white head, a white neck and a white body plumage. The tail is white with a broad, black central band. The wings and feathers of the wing covers are black with white tips. The beak is black with a red tip. The horn is barely developed. The legs and feet are black. The color change in the plumage of the adult birds begins at the age of three to four months. After a moulting of the small plumage, this is completed with an age of about one year.
Appearance of the subspecies
The Mindanao fire hornbill ( Buceros hydrocorax mindanensis ) is slightly smaller than the nominate form with a horn that is larger in relation to its body size. The plumage is otherwise the same as the nominate form. The orbital ring is black with a yellow spot below the eye. The bare throat patch is yellow, the eyes are pale blue-gray in both sexes.
The samar fire hornbill ( Buceros hydrocorax semigaleatus ) has a significantly smaller beak horn . The female has a greenish yellow orbital ring and an equally colored throat spot. Otherwise this subspecies resembles the nominate form.
Distribution area and habitat
The distribution area of the firehorn bird is the Philippines. The nominate form occurs on the islands of Luzon and Marinduque . The Mindanao fire hornbill occurs on Mindanao and Basilan and has also been observed on the islands of Dinagat and Siargao as well as Balut , Bucas Grande and Talicud . The Samar hornbill occurs on Samar , Leyte , Bohol , Panaon and Buad . He has also been seen on calicoan and biliran .
The firehorn bird's habitat are evergreen rainforests. On Luzon it occurs at altitudes of 760 meters, and on Mindanao it has been observed on the mountain slopes of Apo at altitudes of 2100.
Way of life
Fire hornbills live in small flocks of three to seven individuals. They stay in the treetop area and fly short distances just above the treetop. They respond to calls from neighboring squads of firehornbirds, suggesting that the squads are defending a territory. Otherwise, their calls can be heard very regularly in the morning and evening hours. The calls can still be heard from a distance of 1.5 kilometers. During the rest of the day they are comparatively unkind. Occasionally they are socialized with flocks of Mindana hornbills, which belong to the Asian throat hornbills ( acres ). Together with them you look for fruit-bearing trees and resting places.
nutrition
The fire hornbill, like most hornbill species, is omnivorous. It covers most of its nutritional needs with fruits and seeds, with figs playing a special role as with many hornbills. It also eats insects and comes down to the ground in the morning to look for insect larvae.
Reproduction
Fire hornbills are monogamous. The dominant couple raise their offspring with the help of other adult squad members. At the beginning of the breeding season, the dominant female is not only fed by courtship feeding by the partner bird, but also by other adult troop members offering the female fruits and arthropods.
There does not appear to be a fixed specific breeding season: breeding birds were observed on Leyte in May and on Mindanao from March to April. Fledglings were observed on Mindanao in April and on Luzon and Basilan in November.
For hornbills, the clutch is unusually large with two to four eggs. Like all hornbill species, the fire hornbill is also a cave breeder. The female walls herself up in the nest cavity. In the breeding caves that have been observed more intensively so far, several team members were always involved in the breeding business. For example, three adult hornbills and a young bird chased away an oriental hornbill in one nest, while another female worked the nesting hole. In another breeding cave, the breeding female had already left the nesting cave. Two adult firehorn birds and one young bird were involved in the feeding of the young bird, which was still in the breeding cave.
Fire hornbill and human
As with many other hornbill species native to Southeast Asia, the skeletonized skulls of fire hornbills are used in traditional headgear. In addition to the fire hornbill, this practice is also known for the rhinoceros bird , the hornbill and the hornbill .
literature
- Mark Cocker, David Tipling: Birds and People . Jonathan Cape, London 2013, ISBN 978-0-2240-8174-0 .
- W. Grummt , H. Strehlow (Ed.): Zoo animal keeping birds. Verlag Harri Deutsch, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-8171-1636-2 .
- Alan Kemp: The Hornbills - Bucerotiformes . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1995, ISBN 0-19-857729-X .
- Theo Pagel , Bernd Marcordes: Exotic soft-eaters . Eugen Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-8001-5192-9 .
Web links
- Buceros hydrocorax in the Red List of Threatened Species of the IUCN 2014. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2014. Accessed December 4 2016th
Single receipts
- ↑ Buceros hydrocorax in the Red List of Threatened Species of the IUCN 2014. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2014. Accessed December 4 2016th
- ↑ a b c Kemp: The Hornbills - Bucerotiformes . P. 191.
- ↑ a b Kemp: The Hornbills - Bucerotiformes . P. 190.
- ↑ Kemp: The Hornbills - Bucerotiformes . P. 189.
- ↑ a b c Kemp: The Hornbills - Bucerotiformes . P. 192.
- ↑ Kemp: The Hornbills - Bucerotiformes . P. 4.