Follow us on:
  • About
    • History
    • Collections
    • Uses
    • Meet the staff
    • Curator
  • On Display
    • Floor plan
    • Animal finder >
      • By Location
      • By Animal group >
        • Vertebrates
        • Invertebrates
    • Keys and information sheets >
      • Evolution and adaptation
      • Taxonomy
      • Diet
      • Social organisation and mating system
      • Ecosystems and habitats
  • Activities
  • Visit us
    • Tours
    • School visits
    • Find us
    • Get involved
  • Get in touch
    • Visitor feedback

Blyth's Hornbill

Rhyticeros plicatus


Where is it found?

Tropical forest
Tropical forest

Diet and foraging method

Animals that eat meat and plants.
Picks fruit out of trees with its large bill and occasionally hunts on the ground for small animals.
Animals that eat fruit.
Animals that eat insects.
Eats crabs

Key adaptations

Large bill which makes a distinctive mating call.
Males are brightly coloured to attract females.

Social organisation and mating system

Picture
Small flock
Picture
Picture
Form socially monogamous pairs

Females lay their eggs in a hole in a tree and block themselves in with fruit pulp, mud and rotten wood throughout egg incubation. During incubation, the male feeds the female by regurgitating food through a small bill-sized entrance hole. 

Did you know that...?

They laugh! 
The loud honking and grunting calls hornbills make are said to sound like laughing.

Taxonomy

Picture
Follow the arrows to find where Blyth's Hornbill is located on the tree of life! Follow the arrows and look out for Aceros Plicatus or Papuan Hornbill.

Picture Credits:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blyth's_hornbill
http://www.arkive.org/papuan-hornbill/aceros-plicatus/
Maps from: http://species.mol.org/species/Aceros_plicatus
Male Blyth's Hornbill: "Rhyticeros plicatus -Glen Oak Zoo-8a" by Todd - originally posted to Flickr as Some type of bird???. Licenced under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rhyticeros_plicatus_-Glen_Oak_Zoo-8a.jpg#/media/File:Rhyticeros_plicatus_-Glen_Oak_Zoo-8a.jpg
Female Blyth's Hornbill: "Hornbillfemale39". Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hornbillfemale39.jpg#/media/File:Hornbillfemale39.jpg
"Rhyticeros plicatus 1838" by Nicolas Huet le Jeune - Nouveau recueil de planches coloriées d'oiseaux. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rhyticeros_plicatus_1838.jpg#/media/File:Rhyticeros_plicatus_1838.jpg
"Buceros plicatus from Brockhaus Efron" by Brockhaus_and_Efron_Encyclopedic_Dictionary_b32_948-0.jpg: painter from Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionaryderivative work: PawełMM (talk) - Brockhaus_and_Efron_Encyclopedic_Dictionary_b32_948-0.jpg. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Buceros_plicatus_from_Brockhaus_Efron.jpg#/media/File:Buceros_plicatus_from_Brockhaus_Efron.jpg

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.