Nine hornbills are on the Indian list, spread thinly across the country's forests. The Western Ghats hold the Malabar Gray and Malabar Pied, the north-east has the Brown, Wreathed and Rufous-necked, and the Narcondam Hornbill lives on a single small island in the Andaman Sea. All are large, long-billed birds of forest and forest edge, and most feed mainly on fruit, figs above all, which makes them important dispersers of the seeds of big forest trees.
Their nesting habit is the family's signature: the female seals herself into a tree cavity with a wall of mud and droppings, leaving a narrow slit through which the male passes food. A nest therefore depends on old trees with hollows big enough to hold a hornbill, which is why the family tracks the fate of mature forest so closely.
9Species in India
4Photographed
Old forest with fruiting treesWhere to look
Fruit, above all figsWhat they eat
Female sealed in a tree cavityHow they nest
The species
Great Hornbill
Buceros bicornis19 frames
Status
Resident
Range
The Western Ghats, and the Himalayan foothills east through north-east India
Habitat
Tall, mature evergreen and moist forest with large fruiting trees, especially figs
IUCN
Vulnerable
The largest hornbill on the Indian list, unmistakable in any light: a huge yellow-and-orange bill topped by a broad, upturned casque, a black face and breast band, a yellow-washed neck and a white tail crossed by a single black bar. The male has a red eye; the female's is pale bluish-white. It feeds mostly on fruit, working through the crowns of fruiting fig trees, and is often located first by sound: the heavy wingbeats carry a loud, rhythmic whoosh, and a pair flying across a valley can be heard well before they are seen.
FM0280
Apr 2021Valparai, Coimbatore, Tamil NaduPerched upright on a moss-covered branch, bill tilted skyward.
Much of peninsular and central India, in drier country away from the wet forests of the Western Ghats
Habitat
Dry deciduous forest, open woodland, scrub and farmland or town edges with large fruiting trees
IUCN
Least Concern
The plainest hornbill on the Indian list and the one most people meet first: pale grey-brown above, paler grey below, with a lighter eyebrow stripe, a white-tipped tail and a pale, ivory-yellow bill topped by a dark, pointed casque. It usually goes about in pairs or small groups, working through fruiting trees, banyans and figs above all, and is more at home in dry, open country than the Malabar Gray Hornbill of the Ghats. The call is a loud, high-pitched squeal, often given from an exposed branch.
FM0323
Nov 2016Ananthagiri Hills, Vikarabad, TelanganaPerched on a diagonal branch, long tail hanging, looking to the right in warm light.
Malabar Gray Hornbill
Ocyceros griseus6 frames
Status
Resident
Range
Endemic to the Western Ghats
Habitat
Evergreen and moist deciduous forest, forest edge and tall-tree plantations
IUCN
Least Concern
A slim, long-tailed hornbill with no casque to speak of: dark grey-brown upperparts, a paler grey head streaked with white and a pale eyebrow stripe, a tail tipped with white, and a curved bill that runs from orange-red to yellow, generally brighter in males and paler in females. It moves through the canopy in small, noisy groups, taking figs and other fruit and calling with loud, cackling laughs that carry a long way through the forest. The Indian Gray Hornbill is the look-alike of drier country; the Malabar Gray's home is the wet forest of the Ghats.
FM0317
Oct 2021Thattekad Bird Sanctuary, Ernakulam, KeralaClose profile of the head and bill, orange eye framed by a white eyebrow streak.
Malabar Pied-Hornbill
Anthracoceros coronatus16 frames
Status
Resident
Range
Peninsular India, chiefly the Western Ghats and adjoining forest, extending into parts of the Eastern Ghats
Habitat
Moist deciduous and evergreen forest and forest edge, especially around fruiting trees
IUCN
Near Threatened
A black-and-white hornbill, much smaller than the Great: black head, neck and upperparts, a clean white belly and white outer tail feathers, with a pale yellow-cream bill topped by a large casque carrying a broad black patch. The casque is blunt and the bill notched near the tip. It travels in small, noisy parties and feeds mostly on fruit, flicking each one up and back before swallowing it, so a fruiting fig draws it reliably. The very similar Oriental Pied-Hornbill occurs farther north and east; range is the practical way to tell the two apart.
FM0299
Nov 2019Dandeli, Uttara Kannada, KarnatakaTwo birds on a sloping branch, the upper one with a fruit at the bill tip.
