Summary

This episode is all about the family of birds called Bucerotidae. These are the hornbills.

Maybe you’ve heard about hornbills and know a few facts about them. Or maybe you’ve never even heard about these birds. Either way, I think you’ll enjoy today’s podcast episode. These birds are just so cool!

The family Bucerotidae includes several dozen hornbill species. But there’s a second, much smaller avian family that contains birds we also call hornbills. The name of that family is Bucorvidae, the ‘ground-hornbills.’ There are only 2 species of ground-hornbills. I’ll be including them in our conversation today too. Besides, until recently, scientists grouped ground-hornbills into the larger Bucerotidae family.

Hornbill are key players in the tropical ecosystems of both Africa and Asia. There are many fascinating things for us to learn about them.‍

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Links of Interest

• Hunting the Helmeted Hornbill [VIDEO]
• Hornbills Pluck Bats Mid-flight [VIDEO]

Research Citations

• Origin and diversification of hornbills (Bucerotidae)
• A comprehensive molecular phylogeny for the hornbills (Aves: Bucerotidae)
• How far do Asian forest hornbills disperse seeds?
• Visual fields in hornbills: precision-grasping and sunshades
• Bucerotidae from the early Miocene of Napak, Uganda (East Africa): the earliest hornbill with a modern-type beak

Photos

Attributions

• Black-casqued Hornbill sounds (Xeno Canto recording XC718957)
• Southern Ground-Hornbill sounds (Xeno Canto recording XC279886)
• Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill sounds (Xeno Canto recording XC364524)
• Hemprich's Hornbill sounds (Xeno Canto recording XC300781)
• Trumpeter Hornbill sounds (Xeno Canto recording XC323374)
• Great Hornbill sounds (Xeno Canto recording XC295013)
• Samar Hornbill sounds (Xeno Canto recording XC321040)
• Knobbed Hornbill sounds (Xeno Canto recording XC413952)
• African Gray Hornbill sounds (Xeno Canto recording XC640727)

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