Visayan Hornbill
Penelopides panini
A fairly large bird of lowland and foothill forest on Panay and Negros islands. Small for a hornbill. Bill fairly short with black bands. Has black wings, a pale buffy tail with black tip, and bare skin around the eye and chin with a blue tinge. Male has pale underparts and head with a black cheek, while female is entirely black. Male is unmistakable in range. Female is similar to female Writhe-billed Hornbill, but smaller, and lacks the red bill. Voice is a short, medium-pitched honk, reminiscent of a squeaky toy.
Identification
The adults show sexual dimorphism. The male has a creamy-white head and neck, a white upper chest, a reddish-brown lower chest and uppertail-coverts, and a creamy-white buff tail with a broad black tip. The bill and casque are blackish; the former with yellowish ridges. The bare ocular skin is pinkish-white. The tail and bill of the female resemble that of the male, but otherwise the plumage of the female is black, and the ocular skin is blue.
Taxonomy
The Visayan hornbill was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1780 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Buceros panini in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The type locality is the island of Panay in the Philippines. The Visayan hornbill is now placed in the genus Penelopides that was introduced in 1849 by the German naturalist Ludwig Reichenbach in a plate of the hornbills. The origin of the generic name is uncertain but it may be a combination of the Latin pene meaning "almost" or "nearly", the Ancient Greek lophos meaning "crest" and -oideēs "resembling". The specific epithet panini is a Latinized form of "Panay". The common English name refers to the Visayan Islands. These are located in the central part of the Philippines and include the island of Panay.<p>Two subspecies are recognized:
- Scientific name
- Penelopides panini
- Authority
- (Boddaert, 1783)
- Order
- Bucerotiformes
- Family
- Bucerotidae
- Genus
- Penelopides
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
This is a highly endangered species. The total population is estimated at 1800 individuals. There has been a heavy decline in population due to hunting and loss of habitat caused by deforestation. The subspecies ticaensis was described as "abundant" in 1905, but almost the entire forest on the island was replaced by plantations and settlements in the 20th century. The last time the Ticao tarictic was seen was in 1971, and it is now likely to be extinct. If confirmed, this is the first taxon of hornbill to go extinct in recorded history; many other taxa in the family are now at risk.[citation needed]
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
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