Helmeted Hornbill

Rhinoplax vigil

Rams other hornbills in mid-air headfirst. Solid ivory casque. Critically endangered battering ram.

Population: Not numerically quantified by IUCN/BirdLife; population confirmed decreasing dramatically (criteria A3cd — projected extremely rapid decline over three generations, driven ~28.7% by habitat loss plus poaching pressure)
Habitat: Primary semi-evergreen and evergreen lowland and hill forest with closed canopy, from lowlands up to about 1,500 m elevation; strongly favors rugged, hilly terrain and large (>10,000 ha) undisturbed forest tracts, avoiding degraded/logged habitat
Fun fact: The Helmeted Hornbill is unique among hornbills for having an almost solid keratin casque (~11% of its ~3 kg body weight) that males use to ram each other in mid-air jousting duels over fruiting fig trees — this "hornbill ivory" casque is precisely why the species has collapsed to Critically Endangered, poached for the illegal Chinese carving trade.
Range: Sundaic lowlands of Southeast Asia: peninsular Myanmar, peninsular Thailand, peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, and Sumatra/Borneo (Indonesia); extent of occurrence approximately 3,570,000 km²
Diet: Primarily fruit, especially strangler fig (Ficus) fruits, supplemented by small animals such as insects, small reptiles, and birds
Size: 1.65 m

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