Buceros Rhinoceros
Hornbills breeding season can involve spectacular head on collisions between males. After finding a nest hole, the female will protect the nest from arboreal predators by plastering herself inside using droppings. While she incubates her eggs, he male will bring her and chicks food until they are ready to leave the nest.
Fun Facts
- Under human care, hornbills can live up to 35 years.
- Hornbills eat figs and help to spread the seeds so that fig trees will grow.
- They are one of the largest birds found in the South Asian rainforest.
- Hornbills have extremely loud call, so loud it can even be heard from outside the El Paso Zoo’s Asian Atrium exhibit.
Classification
Class: Aves
Order: Bucerotiformes
Family: Bucerotidae
Genus: Beceros
Species: B. Rhinoceros
Habitat
It is found in lowland and montane, tropical and subtropical climates and in mountain rain forests up to 1,400 meters in Borneo, Sumatra, Java, the Malay Peninsula, Singapore, and southern Thailand.