Hornbill spp, C.160km SE Windhoek Namibia (summer 2010) (1 Viewer)

[Andy Hurley]

Southern Yellow-billed

 

[Andy Hurley]

Those photos show a white outertail - the reverse of your statement above.

I was getting Monteiro's and Damara confused. Sorry. BTW is that why you wanted photos?

 

[dwatsonbirder]

Thanks for the commentary so far - much appreciated. Unfortunately these are the only two (crap) images I have of this bird. The angle is particularly frustrating as if we could see the breast, the answer would be much simpler! The location was here, unsure if that helps very much though. I may just have to concede it can't be identified with certainty - good excuse to head back to Namibia (if one was needed!).

 

[Butty]

I was getting Monteiro's and Damara confused.

Both those species have a white outertail. I think you may be confused by your own photos: in your Damara hornbill photo 4348, the outermost feather happens to be lying slightly inboard of the adjacent feather, giving the effect of a dark outertail - even though you can see clearly the shaft of the largely-white (actual) outermost feather (in a closed tail, seen from underneath, it's only the outermost pair of feathers that comprise almost everything that's visible). Presumably the same effect is also happening in your Damara hornbill photo 0523, even though in this case individual feathers are not visible.
The largely-white outermost tail-feathers of Damara hornbill are shown here:

ML614527037 - Damara Red-billed Hornbill - Macaulay Library

Macaulay Library ML614527037; © Morten Winther Dahl; Oshikoto, Namibia

macaulaylibrary.org

 

[Andy Hurley]

here

Unfortunately blocked for me

good excuse to head back to Namibia (if one was needed!)

Absolutely! None needed at all. Namibia has it's own special beauty and very few people for it's size.

 

[Andy Hurley]

Both those species have a white outertail. I think you may be confused by your own photos: in your Damara hornbill photo 4348, the outermost feather happens to be lying slightly inboard of the adjacent feather, giving the effect of a dark outertail - even though you can see clearly the shaft of the largely-white (actual) outermost feather (in a closed tail, seen from underneath, it's only the outermost pair of feathers that comprise almost everything that's visible). Presumably the same effect is also happening in your Damara hornbill photo 0523, even though in this case individual feathers are not visible.
The largely-white outermost tail-feathers of Damara hornbill are shown here:

ML614527037 - Damara Red-billed Hornbill - Macaulay Library

Macaulay Library ML614527037; © Morten Winther Dahl; Oshikoto, Namibia

macaulaylibrary.org

Thanks for the info and the link!

 

[Andy Hurley]

The Southern Yellow-billed has a sizeable casque, which I can't make out on your images. (It might be there, though). I'm a bit colourblind, but the bill on your bird looks red, or may be orange and not as yellow as any I've photographed. Because of that, I think for me, it can't be SYb Hornbill.

 

[Andy Adcock]

I think the banana bill-shape (pic 1, which is more in profile) is better for southern yellow-billed hornbill - and I can almost convince myself (© @Alexander Stöhr) of a whitish supercilium.

Whichever, I agree it's not right for Damara.

 

[Andy Hurley]

I think its going to be difficult to get an certain identity for these images. Most likely on range alone is Southern Yellow-billed. As I said up thread, I personally would bin them and move on, Daniel. One that got away.

 

[pianoman]

More armchair birding - but FWIW the head stripe and the white outer tail look real, rather than an artifact, to me. The bill looks distinctively orange (deeper than yellow). Is Southern Red-Billed out of range? It looks good for that to me.
Edit: I see Southern Yellow Billed can have quite an orange bill, so indeed it looks the best candidate to me

 

[Andy Hurley]

Is Southern Red-Billed out of range? It looks good for that to me.
Edit: I see Southern Yellow Billed can have quite an orange bill, so indeed it looks the best candidate to me

Its not in range in the Sasol