Western Long-tailed Hornbill

Photo © by amaizlish
Kakum National Park, Ghana, 5 November 2011

Horizocerus albocristatus

Identification

70cm. A blackish hornbill with a very long tail and a distinctive white crest

• Very long, graduated tail with white tip
• Bushy white crest
• Face white in nominate subspecies, macrourus with white face, throat and upper breast
• Throat skin flesh-coloured
• Bill and casque blackish, basal half of upper mandible yellow

Females are smaller and have a shorter casque ridge. Juveniles have a smaller, greenish bill without casque.

Similar species

Eastern Long-tailed Hornbill has black side of head.

Distribution

Tropical Africa from Sierra Leone in the west to Benin in the east. Patchily distributed but locally common.

Taxonomy

White-crested Hornbill has been split into Eastern Long-tailed Hornbill and Western Long-tailed Hornbill.

This species was formerly placed in the genus Tockus or in Tropicranus.

Subspecies

Clements recognizes these subspecies[1]:

• H. a. albocristatus from southern Sierra Leone to southern Guinea, Liberia and in western Ivory Coast
• H. a. macrourus from eastern Ivory Coast to Benin

Habitat

Primary forest with dense tangles. Also in tall gallery and secondary forest.
Occurs up to 1500m.

Behaviour

Feeds mainly on insects but takes also spiders, slugs, lizards, snakes, nestlings and shrews and also fruit which is taken from the ground.
Often follows driver-ants, bird groups or monkeys to hawk for insects disturbed by them.
Little known about breeding. The nest is placed in a natural cavity in a tree or palm stump. The female seals the entrance with its own droppings. Lays 2 eggs.

Vocalisation

A variety of sounds, mainly with a hollow character. No known difference from Western Long-tailed Hornbill.

References

1. Clements, J. F., P. C. Rasmussen, T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, A. Spencer, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2023. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2023. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Gill, F, D Donsker, and P Rasmussen (Eds). 2023. IOC World Bird List (v 13.2). Doi 10.14344/IOC.ML.13.2. http://www.worldbirdnames.org/
3. Kirwan, G. M. and A. C. Kemp (2023). Western Long-tailed Hornbill (Horizocerus albocristatus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (B. K. Keeney and N. D. Sly, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.whchor1.01

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Western Long-tailed Hornbill. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 21 June 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Western_Long-tailed_Hornbill

External Links

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