Rhinoceros hornbill

코뿔새

A hornbill with an upward-curved orange-red casque on a big yellow bill. Its body is black and the white tail carries a black band. It eats large fruit in rainforest and spreads the seeds.

See it on the 3D globe →

At a glance

Class: Birds
Lives in: Borneo rainforest
Diet: Eats both plants and meat (omnivore)
Conservation status: Vulnerable (IUCN VU)
Habitat: rainforests

Quick answers

Where does the Rhinoceros hornbill live?

It lives in rainforests. On the globe you can find it near Borneo rainforest.

What does the Rhinoceros hornbill eat?

Its diet: eats both plants and meat (omnivore).

Is the Rhinoceros hornbill endangered?

It is listed as Vulnerable (IUCN VU).

The rhinoceros hornbill is a large forest bird with an upward-curving orange-red casque, a helmet-like growth, on top of a big yellow bill. Its body is mostly black, with white legs and a white tail crossed by a black band. It is 80 to 90 centimetres long, and the bill and casque get their orange-red colour from oil the bird rubs on from a gland above its tail.

It lives in the rainforests of the Malay Peninsula, Singapore, Borneo, Sumatra and Java, up to about 1,400 metres high. It mostly eats large fruit but also catches insects and small reptiles, rodents and birds, and so it spreads many seeds. The IUCN lists the species as Vulnerable. It is the state bird of Sarawak in Malaysia, known as the Land of the Hornbills.

Walled in the nest

Hornbills nest in holes in tree trunks, and the female lets herself be sealed in. After she lays her eggs, the pair close the entrance with mud, food scraps and droppings, leaving only a tiny hole. The male then brings all the food through the hole to the female and the chicks. When the chicks are fully feathered, the parents chip away the dry mud and let them out. This means the pair must trust each other deeply.

Male or female?

Males and females look alike except for their eyes. The male has red eyes with black rims, and the female has white eyes with red rims. In captivity it can live up to 35 years. The rhinoceros hornbill has sometimes interbred with the great hornbill, and the chicks were raised successfully. Its name comes from the casque, which looks like a rhinoceros horn.

Fun facts

It is the state bird of Sarawak in Malaysia, known as the "Land of the Hornbills".
The orange-red colour of the casque is painted on with oil from the bird's own preen gland.
In Sarawak the hornbill is a state symbol, and the region is called the Land of the Hornbills.
A hornbill mother stays walled inside the nest cavity while the male feeds the family through a small gap.