Damara Red-billed Hornbill
Tockus damarensis
Fairly small, slim, long-tailed hornbill. Note the red bill, dark eye, pale face, and heavily spotted back. White patches on the wing and outer tail are conspicuous in flight. Found in arid savanna, often in lusher woodland along dry riverbeds. Call is a series of clucks that starts with single notes, then becomes louder and more emphatic, with doubled notes. Has a small area of overlap with the very similar Southern Red-billed Hornbill in northern Namibia. Separated by the unstreaked white face and dark eye, though beware of hybrids. Somewhat like Monteiro’s Hornbill, but smaller and slimmer-billed, with bolder white spotting on the back.
Identification
Damara red-billed hornbills are small species of African hornbills. They have curved dark to bright red bills with their nostrils on the upper beak close to their eyes. Their heads are covered in greyish-white feathers with dark grey feathers running along the back of their heads and upper half of the neck. Like all red-billed hornbills, Damara red-billed hornbills have wings covered in circles of white feathers surrounded by black or dark brown feathers. Their tail feathers are black on the exterior and white on the interior and their legs are short and grey with small semi-sharp claws at the end. Their bellies are usually greyish white but can also be pure white.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Tockus damarensis
- Authority
- (Shelley, 1888)
- Order
- Bucerotiformes
- Family
- Bucerotidae
- Genus
- Tockus
Range and habitat
Damara red-billed hornbills can be found in southwestern Angola and northern Namibia. They can be found nesting or resting in local trees in grasslands or savannahs.
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
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