Bird of the Week – Southern redbilled hornbill
The Zulu name is umKholwane and in Afrikaans die rooibekneushoringvoel.
A common resident confined to Zululand, Limpopo and the eastern Lowveld of South Africa.
Also found in northern Namibia and Botswana, western Mozambique and Zimbabwe. They like savanna, especially mopane woodland. Usually gregarious in small flocks when not breeding, otherwise in pairs. Foraging mainly on the ground, they dig for food in the soil and dung, becoming tame in the presence of humans. Redbilled hornbills like insects, seeds, scorpions and amphibians. Their flight is buoyant and undulating, displaying by bobbing up and down with head bowed.
The call is a sharp staccato trumpeting, starting with single notes speeding up into double notes wak, wak, wak kawak-kawak-kawak. Breeding takes place in October and November.
The nest is a natural hole in a tree, lined with green leaves, about three to four metres above the ground. Four or five eggs are laid, the incubation is 23 to 25 days and nestlings for 39 to 50 days.
The female leaves the nest after 20 to 23 days then nestlings reseal the nest unaided.
The Zulu name is umKholwane and in Afrikaans die rooibekneushoringvoel.
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