Hornbills

very little info on the paultons park website they are supposed to have the largest collection of hornbill in the uk, i know they sent some black hornbill to burgers bush in holland
 
I had a Paulton's guide book in the late 1980s with a picture of a Black and White Casqued hornbill in one of its aviaries. It was labelled at this species in the guide book.
 
The pair at London are I think abysinian ground hornbills. The casque should look like that. The male at London zoo has a casque that looks almost hollowed out inside

They always look as if they've been damaged to me- but you say that is natural?

The one I saw recently was at Whipsnade.... which subspecies is theirs?
 
Red billed dwarf hornbill, according to San diego's site. I know next to nothing about the Tockus hornbills. Peneopides, Buceros, aceros and ceratogmna are my specialities!
 
Just found this:

Black casqued hornbills are kept in private U.K collections and here's a story from BBC news last august.

Bird spotters have been asked to help find a pair of exotic birds after they were stolen from their home.
The two black African Hornbills, named Elvis and Priscilla, were taken from their Thames Valley home in July.

A male bird matching Elvis' description was spotted in a garden in Hartley Wintney near Fleet, Hants, and police have said he may still be in the area.

A police appeal has been made to find the birds as their owner is concerned they might not survive the winter.

Hampshire Constabulary have released a description of the pair.

They said Elvis is male, mostly black with white ends to the underside of his tail and a pale area around his eyes.

Priscilla is said to be female, brown with missing tail feathers after they were removed by the thief.

Wildlife liaison officer, Pc Stacy Beale, said: "These large exotic birds have been stolen from a private collection.

"The species is not native to the UK and will not survive in the wild."
 
Which hornbill species is it then? Do you know? I can't find any pictures which match the description.
 
Thanks, I assume T.camurus is the smallest hornbill. If I'd bothered to take more notice of your post re the black casqued I would have known which species is missing.

So, hornbill, would you know which hornbill is the most endangered? I would guess Visayan Tarictic myself.
 
CR

The sulu hornbill is the most endangered, with only 40-60 remaining. Then the visayan writhed, the one in my avatar, is the second rarest, with up to 200 surviving.

EN

Then it is the mindoro and visayan taricitcs.
 
well I don't know much, but it lives on the island of sulu in the Philippines. Its scientific name is anthraceros montani, I think? Very few pictures of this species have been taken, but there is a picture on the oriental bird gallery. It is a large black species, with a white tail band, and a conspiceous black casque. It is, to my knowledge, doomed to become extinct soon, because there are not as many programmes set up for this species as the other philippine hornbills.

The visayan writhed hornbill lives on the isalnds of Panay and Negros in the philippines. Most pictures are of a male taken by John hornbuckle. This species was treated to be conspefic to the writhed hornbill that is a resident of mindanao, and is kept at Chester. There are several threats to this species, the deforestation being the largest.

I will write about other endangered hornbills later.
 
I doubt that many hornbills are held in private collections. If any are kept, I doubt that they'd be any of the species that you mentioned, as they are all quite unusual in captivity. Only a handful of zoos have been sucessful with the writhed, so I doubt that any private collections would house them. The rhinoceros hornbills are only kept at Paignton and Chester in the U.K, and the Great Indians are slightly more common.
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I think Birdworld in surrey kept Rhinoceros hornbills as late as 2005, they may still do so. In relation to your question about the Casqued hornbills, here is a link to a slightly cringe-worthy storry on the only one I know of currently in the UK, which was itself hatched at Birdworld:

Virginia the virgin hornbill. 30 years old and never been kissed - News - ZSL London Zoo - ZSL

The Rare Species Conservation Centre in Kent also claims to keep the Rhinoceros hornbill (according to its site). Does Paignton actually still keep this species?

As far as I know only Chester and Cotswold Wildlife park now have Great Indian hornbills, although 10-15 years ago Colchester, Marwell, London, (maybe even Rode?) and Ventnor Bird Gardens all kept this species.
 
The Sulu hornbill is very striking- it seems to have an entirely black body and an entirely white tail- most unusual. How big is this bird?
 
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