Von der Decken's Hornbill

About the Von der Decken's hornbill

Von der Decken's hornbill is a hornbill native to East Africa, found mainly east of the East African Rift in a band running from Ethiopia south to Tanzania. It takes its name from the German explorer Baron Karl Klaus von der Decken, who lived from 1833 to 1865. Jackson's hornbill is often treated as a subspecies of this bird rather than a species in its own right.

It is a small hornbill with blackish upperparts and mostly whitish underparts and head, a long tail, and a long, curved bill that lacks a casque. It closely resembles the red-billed hornbill, and the two are best told apart by bill color and by the fact that Von der Decken's hornbill lacks spotting on the wing coverts in both sexes.

The species shows clear sexual dimorphism in bill color: females have an all-black bill, while males have a red bill with a cream tip and a black cutting edge, making the sexes easy to tell apart at a glance.

Behavior and diet

Von der Decken's hornbill is omnivorous, feeding on insects, fruit, and seeds, and it does most of its foraging on the ground. Outside the breeding season, birds will gather into flocks rather than staying in pairs.

The female lays two or three white eggs inside a tree hole, which is then sealed with a cement of mud, droppings, and fruit pulp, leaving only a narrow slit just wide enough for the male to pass food through to the sealed-in female and chicks. Once the growing chicks and the female become too large for the nest cavity, she breaks out and the pair rebuilds the wall; from that point, both parents feed the chicks. In captivity, breeding can be encouraged with a small barrel or hollow log fitted with an entrance hole about 5 in (13 cm) tall and 3 in (7.6 cm) wide — the birds will seal the hole themselves once the female is ready to nest. Captive diets typically include papaya, cantaloupe, blueberries, bananas, and apples, supplemented daily with live food such as crickets and mealworms; small rodents are also taken but are usually offered only two or three times a week.

Range and habitat

Von der Decken's hornbill occupies East Africa, concentrated mainly to the east of the East African Rift, with a range extending from Ethiopia in the north down to Tanzania in the south. It is a bird of thorn scrub and similar dry, arid habitats rather than forest.

Conservation status

Von der Decken's hornbill is rated Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, in a 2016 assessment by BirdLife International, and no specific population threats are noted for it.