Hornbill
| Hornbill | ||||||||||
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Hornbill, Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary , West Bengal |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Aceros nipalensis | ||||||||||
| ( Hodgson , 1829) |
The nepal hornbill ( Aceros nipalensis ) is a species of bird in the hornbill family that occurs in Southeast Asia.
The population of the hornbill was classified in the IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species in 2016 as " Vulnerable (VU) ".
Appearance
The hornbill is a large hornbill with a body length between 90 and 100 centimeters. The male's tail accounts for an average of 41.9 centimeters, while the female's tail is slightly smaller at 39.4 centimeters. The beak of the male is on average 22.2 centimeters long, that of the female is slightly shorter with an average of 18.5 centimeters. The sex dimorphism in this species is so pronounced that the sexes can also be differentiated during field observation.
Appearance of the male
The head, neck and the underside of the body are reddish brown. The feathers in the neck are somewhat elongated. The chest and abdomen are slightly darker than the rest of the underside of the body. The wings and back are black with a metallic green sheen. The five outer hand wings have white tips. The upper half of the tail is black, while the lower half is white. The control springs are slightly stepped, so that the tail appears rounded overall.
The beak and beak horn, which extends over half of the beak, are yellow. There are up to eight black stripes on the lower half of the beak. The featherless skin around the eye is pale blue. The very large bare throat patch is predominantly bright red. However, directly at the base of the beak it is dark purple-blue. The eyes are orange, the legs and feet are black.
Features of the female and young birds
The adult females have a body plumage that is largely similar to that of the males. However, the head, neck and underside of the body are black and not reddish brown. The purple-blue part of the throat pouch is slightly larger. The eyes are deep red. The female is also slightly smaller.
In the young birds, both sexes initially show a body plumage that resembles the male. The beak horn is not yet developed, the beak is smaller and still without stripes. The eyes are greenish white. Females that are not yet sexually mature molt into black neck and head plumage at around one year of age.
Distribution area and habitat
The hornbill occurred historically in Nepal from the foothills of the Himalayas to Kathmandu. In India it is widespread from Assam to the middle of Arunachal Pradesh , Cachar and Manipur . It is also found in the south of Bhutan, in the east of Myanmar, in the north and west of Thailand, in Yunnan in China, in the north of Laos and Vietnam. However, it is now extinct in many regions of its former habitat. It is no longer found in Nepal and is rare in northern Thailand and probably extinct in the northwest. It is very rare in China and Vietnam.
Way of life
The hornbill usually lives in pairs or in small flocks of three to four individuals. Very rarely do groups of seven to eight individuals occur. The hornbill is a tree dweller that rarely comes to the ground to eat fallen fruit. He mainly eats fruit.
Like all hornbills, the hornbill is a cave breeder. He uses natural tree hollows that are about ten to thirty meters above the ground. The female blocks the access to the brood cavity with a mixture of her own excrement and fruit pulp. Presumably she also processes clay that the male brings. Nesting caves are often used for several consecutive years.
The reproductive cycle lasts about 130 days. In India, the beginning of the breeding season falls between February and April. Eggs are laid around the time it starts to rain. The clutch comprises one or two eggs. In contrast to many other hornbills, the female only leaves the breeding cave when the young birds have fledged. It therefore spends more than three months in the brood cavity.
Hornbill and man
The nepal horn vorgel is hunted in different parts of its range. Hunting in Vietnam, for example, has contributed to the fact that the bird has become so rare. There are traditional costumes among indigenous peoples of India, in which skulls of the nepal hornbird are processed. Other indigenous peoples take juveniles out of the breeding caves to keep them as pets.
literature
- 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 .
Web links
- Aceros nipalensis in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2012. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2012. Accessed November 19, 2016th
- Calls of the nepal hornbird on Xeno-Canto
Single receipts
- ^ Hodgson, BH: On a new species of Buceros . In: Asiatic Researches . 18, 1833, pp. 178-186.
- ↑ a b Aceros nipalensis in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2017. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2016. Retrieved on 3 October 2017th
- ↑ Kemp: The Hornbills - Bucerotiformes . P. 213.
- ↑ a b Kemp: The Hornbills - Bucerotiformes . P. 214.
- ↑ a b Kemp: The Hornbills - Bucerotiformes . P. 215.