Trumpeter Hornbill

(Bycanistes bucinator)

The trumpeter hornbill is a medium-sized bird with white and black feathers on the back and belly, and white tips on the wing and tail feathers. The beak is large, black, and has a pronounced casque which is larger on the males than the females. Scientists believe that the Trumpeter Hornbill’s large casque helps to amplify sound.

Trumpeter Hornbills are omnivores, eating fruits, insects and small mammals. They swallow their food whole and regurgitate the indigestible seeds, exoskeletons and bones.

This hornbill is a locally common resident of the tropical evergreen forests of Burundi, Mozambique, Botswana, Congo, Kenya, the Caprivi strip of Namibia and eastern South Africa. They prefer warm coastal lowland forest, often near watercourses, although often flying across other habitats on its way to new forest patches.

They’re intelligent and friendly, and communicate with a wide variety of chirps, whistles, and wails. Trumpeter Hornbills are also known to make a “WAH-WAH-WAH” sound that resembles babies crying.

Information collected from https://safariwest.com/2022/08/safari-spotlight-trumpeter-hornbill/ and https://biogui.de/e/Trumpeter_Hornbill