The Male Grey Hornbill Flies Around Looking for Food for his Wife... 💚💚💚

The Life & Love of the Indian Grey Hornbills

#intothewildwithrufus #musings

Are the Indian Grey Hornbills and Common Grey Hornbills of the same species?

Also, are the Malabar Grey Hornbills and the Indian Grey Hornbills of the same species?

Read to find out… 😊

These memorable snapshots of the Indian Grey Hornbill that I had taken quite recently, form part of my prized birding archives of all time.

It’s indeed a rarity to spot these Indian Grey Hornbills in such close quarters, giving a darshan ‘exclusively’ for my Sony lens 😊 for such a long time.

Well, there are a lot of takeaways from the life and living of the Indian Grey Hornbill.

Bulbul Sharma, legendary painter and writer based out of New Delhi, has spent a lifetime exploring the gardens, parks and forest areas in and around Delhi. She has written a delightful book based on her wanderings.

From Grey Hornbills and Roseringed Parakeets in Lodi Gardens to the handsome resident Indian Eagle-owl at Tughlakabad Fort, she recounts her observations of all manner of birds and animals with the zeal of a true nature lover in her book titled, Sunbirds in the Morning, Grey Hornbills at Dusk. 

I wish to quote from her observations of the Grey Hornbill –

During summer afternoons when the heat is turning Delhi’s streets into a furnace and most people are indoors, the male Grey Hornbill flies around looking for food for his wife. This clumsy looking bird with a huge curved beak is a devoted husband.

The Grey Hornbill, a purely Indian species, has a complicated lifestyle. The female lays her eggs in the hollow of a tree, usually peepal or banyan, and then sets about building a wall with her own droppings.

She uses her heavy beak like a trowel to flatten the plaster and to seal the entrance to the hollow but she cleverly leaves a tiny crack open.

Now she is a self-made prisoner.

The male searches around for the best berries and brings them back to his mate. Then he proceeds to feed her through the crack in the plaster. 

The female stays captive in this ‘nest’ till the eggs hatch though she takes great care to keep her home clean by throwing out rubbish through the tiny slit window. Then one fine sunny day in summer she breaks open the plaster and emerges into the fresh air.

At first she looks a bit dazed by the sunlight but soon recovers her poise and the happy hornbill pair congratulate each other for successfully bringing into this world yet another brood.

I wonder if the Grey Hornbill fledglings ever acknowledge their mother’s sacrifice to hatch them in such total security or do they like most teenagers say, ‘What did you ever do for us?’

observes Bulbul Sharma.

Interestingly, the Malabar Grey Hornbill (MGH) and the Indian Grey Hornbill (IGH) are two distinct species of hornbill, even though their names and overall grey appearance are very similar.

Source: Birds of the Indian Subcontinent by Richard, Carol and Tim

They both belong to the same genus, Ocyceros, but are separate species with clear differences in their distribution and physical features.

The Malabar Grey Hornbill is endemic to the Western Ghats and associated hills of Southern India (dense forest habitat), whereas the Indian Grey Hornbill is widespread across the Indian subcontinent in the plains and northern, central, and eastern parts of India (more adaptable to open woodlands and even urban areas).

Also, the Malabar Grey Hornbill lacks a prominent casque (the helmet-like structure). The bill is simply large and curved, while the Indian Grey Hornbill can be easily identified by its small, prominent, pointed casque that extends to the point of curvature on the bill.

In addition, the MGH prefers dense, moist evergreen forests and hilly tracts, while the IGH prefers dry deciduous forests, open woodlands, and is often found in urban parks and gardens.

On a ‘historical’ note, I should confess that, whenever I look up these lovely books for authentic information for our birding adventures, I am always extra curious to know the legendary Salim Ali’s take on the ‘birds’ that we spotted, as well.

That’s because, Salim Ali, the renowned Indian ornithologist and naturalist, famously known as the Birdman of India, is also in high renown for his celebrated work titled, The Book of Indian Birds, that was first published in the year 1941.

Published by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), the book quickly became a landmark volume, sparking widespread popular interest in ornithology across India. The book has been continually revised and remains a standard field guide for bird enthusiasts in the subcontinent.

Added, the book has real-time historical references to some of the modern nomenclatures associated with most of the birds that are native to the Indian subcontinent.

And so in all curiosity, I looked up this book for his notes on the Grey Hornbill.

To my surprise, the Indian Grey Hornbill was originally referred to as the “Common Grey Hornbill” - an older name for the bird that is now most widely known as the Indian Grey Hornbill.

Since the bird is found throughout the Indian subcontinent (India, Nepal, Bangladesh, parts of Pakistan), the newer name “Indian Grey Hornbill” stuck to it!

You may want to watch a lovely and memorable video on YouTube Shorts, that we had shot during our darshan of the Indian Grey Hornbill, quite recently in Pench, Madhya Pradesh, HERE.

All photos (c) this blogger 😊