Great Pied Hornbill

Buceros bicornis

The largest hornbill alive, with a casque the size of your forearm. Male feeds his sealed mate one piece at a time.

Population: ~13,000–27,000 mature individuals, decreasing
Habitat: Dense old-growth, unlogged wet evergreen and mixed deciduous rainforest in hilly regions, from lowlands up to about 2,000 m elevation; strongly dependent on large trees for nesting cavities and avoids disturbed/logged forest.
Fun fact: During the roughly four-month breeding season the female seals herself inside a tree-cavity nest using a plaster of mud, droppings, and food pulp, leaving only a narrow slit through which the male feeds her and the chicks until she (and later the chicks) break out.
Range: South and Southeast Asia across 12 countries: India (Himalayan foothills and Western Ghats), Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, southern China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Peninsular Malaysia, and Sumatra (Indonesia).
Diet: Primarily frugivorous, favoring figs and lipid-rich fruits (e.g. Lauraceae, Myristicaceae); also opportunistically takes small mammals, birds, reptiles, and insects.
Size: 1.1 m
Wingspan: 1.52 m
Lifespan: 35 years

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