Chirping with Kloof Conservancy: The Trumpeter Hornbill

WE start our new column on the birds of the Upper Highway with one of the most iconic and noisy species in the area – the Trumpeter Hornbill.

The Trumpeter Hornbill, (Bycanistes buccinator) is a medium-sized hornbill, with a length between 58cm and 65cm, characterised by a large grey casque on the bill, which is smaller in females.

The eyes are brown or red, surrounded by pink skin. The distinguishing features include an all-black back, white belly and underwing coverts (in flight, wings present white tips) and red facial skin.

It is easily distinguished from the other hornbill found in our area, the smaller Crowned Hornbill (Tockus alboterminatus), due to the very large casque on top of the beak. The two species have very similar distribution and behaviour.

On very rare occasions, a third species of hornbill, the much larger Southern Ground Hornbill, is also spotted in the Highway area.

Behaviour

The Trumpeter Hornbill is a gregarious bird, usually living in groups of two to five, although sometimes as many as 50. They have a very distinctive and very loud cry often sounding like a crying baby.

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Diet

Trumpeter Hornbills feed on fruit and large insects and have often been spotted eating millipedes in the Kloof Gorge. They are very fond of the fruit of Waterberries and the Natal Mahogany, which are plentiful in our area.

Breeding

The Trumpeter Hornbill normally uses natural holes in trees as nesting sites. Once a site has been selected, the female seals herself in the nest by narrowing the entrance with mud and faeces collected by the male, leaving just a small slit. It sometimes uses holes in rock faces, although not often.

Egg-laying season is from September to January, peaking from October to November. It lays between two to four eggs and they are incubated solely by the female for roughly 24 days. The male forages for the female, giving food to her through the entrance slit.

The chicks stay in the nest for at least 50 days, remaining near the nest for about a week before joining the parents in foraging flights. The female stays in the nest from when the eggs are laid to when the chicks fledge, a period of about 94 days.

Distribution

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. Habitat:It generally prefers warm, coastal lowland forest, often near watercourses.

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Threats

It is not threatened other than by land transformation, resulting in habitat loss.

Local information

The Trumpeter Hornbills are very common in the Highway area and they can be often be seen flying in flocks out of the Kloof Gorge in the morning and returning in the evening. They are found in most parts of the gorge but are more commonly seen near the cliff faces. The Crowned Hornbills are also often spotted in the open areas or close to the forest edges.

Trumpeter Hornbills can become quite accustomed to people and can visit the same house on an ongoing basis where they have the habit of banging their large bills on windows, presumably in a display of aggression against their own reflected image.

The Trumpeter Hornbill is also depicted in a stylised form in the Kloof Conservancy’s logo. Visit the organisation’s website at www.kloofconservancy.org.za or like its Facebook page (KloofConservancy).

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