From Opus

Male, a variant with white/greyish supercillium
Photo by TSWong
Tawau, Sabah, September 2006

Alternative names: Asian Black Hornbill; Malay Black Hornbill

Anthracoceros malayanus

[edit] Identification

60-65cm. A medium-sized, blackish hornbill.

[edit] Male

• Black plumage
• Long tail with broad white tips on outer tail feathers
• White or pale grey superciliary stripe, variable, can also be dark grey or absent
• Pale yellow bill and casque
• Blue-black bare skin around eye and small throat patch

Female
Photo by kctsang
Kinabatangan River, Sabah, May 2009

[edit] Female

• Smaller than male
• Black bill and smaller casque
• Yellowish-flesh to pinkish circumorbital skin
• Yellow-buff throat patch

Juveniles with smaller, pale green bill.

[edit] Distribution

From southern Thailand to Malaysia and on Sumatra and Borneo.
Locally still common but threatened by habitat loss.

[edit] Taxonomy

This is a monotypic species.^[1]
Subspecies deminutus is usually considered invalid^[2]

[edit] Habitat

Lowland primary evergreen forest. Usually below 200m.

[edit] Behaviour

Juvenile
Photo by MountainMan
Similajau National Park, Bintulu, East Malaysia, October 2005

Only rarely seen in flocks.

[edit] Diet

Feeds mainly on fruit but takes also grasshoppers, locusts, small reptiles and amphibians. Catches also bats.
Forages in middle and lower levels of forest.

[edit] Breeding

Little known. Nests in a natural cavity or an old woodpecker hole in a tree.

[edit] Vocalisation

Not as noisy as the other Hornbills

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2011. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to August 2011. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/downloadable-clements-checklist
2. Avibase
3. Del Hoyo, J, A Elliot, and J Sargatal, eds. 2001. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 6: Mousebirds to Hornbills. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. ISBN 978-8487334306
4. London Zoo
5. BF Member observations

• List of references

[edit] External Links