Ground Hornbills Photo

Photographer’s Note

The African ground hornbill, Bucorvus cafer, are the only ground dwellers among hornbills. The large bill characteristic of the Bucerotidae family may be why hornbills are the only birds with the first two neck vertebrae (axis and atlas) fused together. Hornbills are notable for their long eyelashes and rather stubby legs and toes, with broad soles and the bases of the three front toes partly fused. The throat skin is inflatable, and sometimes inflates when it makes its guttural call.

Here you can see them next to a pile of elephant dung. Their diet is primarily small vertebrates or larger insects. In this case, they are looking for the dung beetle - quite a large insect. We were quite fascinated watching them ruffle through the dung to find them.

Tech: Cropped and equalised. Unsharp mask. Hope you like it.

nwoehnl, Rockyboy, digi-mom has marked this note useful

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nwoehnl (120) 2004-05-02 16:08

I'm meeting quite an amount of new characters here, Judy - I don't think I saw the African ground hornbill before, nor did I spend much thought on the dung beetle :-D I like their distinctively shaped beaks and reddish pattern, and how the two on the left seem to be off for a walk to the next pile ... Well captured again in a natural setting.

Rockyboy (20580) 2004-05-02 16:23

I like very much the framing of those 2 ground hornbill on the left. Intersting note too. Well done, Judy!

joergen115 (2244) 2004-05-08 17:45 [Comment]