Brown-cheeked Hornbill Bycanistes cylindricus Scientific name definitions

60–70 cm; one female 921 g. Medium-sized to large black hornbill with white rump, tail-coverts and belly, broad white trailing edge to wings , white tail with broad black band across centre. Male has brown-tipped feathers on face; bill and high tubular casque cream-­coloured, base of lower mandible grooved, casque with grooves at sides and wrinkles at base; circumorbital skin red, eyes dark red, legs and feet black. Female smaller, much smaller bill and casque blackish, circumorbital skin pink to cream, eyes dark brown, and legs and feet black. Juvenile like adult, but smaller bill without casque.

Sierra Leone, S Guinea, Liberia, Ivory Coast and Ghana; unconfirmed record from Togo.

Diet not as well known as that of formerly conspecific B. albotibialis, but said to feed mainly on insects during the post-breeding period in Liberia, and observed feeding on seeds of an epiphytic orchid in Ghana. Usually forages 25–50 m up in canopy of large emergent or isolated trees, but sometimes descends into secondary growth or flies out to hawk insects. Usually in pairs or small groups, rarely as many as 70–90 gathering in fruiting tree.

A series  of hoarse, nasal, descending barks “rrah...rrah...rrah...rrah...” or “rack kack kak-kak-kak”, sometimes given singly in contact, or becomes a more clamorous series of raucous notes that run into one another; also low-pitched, piping “ooh ooh” between birds perched together.

VULNERABLE. Formerly considered Near Threatened. Probably the most threatened African hornbill. Restricted to Upper Guinea forests, where it occurs in S Guinea, Sierra Leone (including Loma Mts, Western Area Peninsula Forest, Kangri Hills and Gola Forest), Liberia, S Ivory Coast (where it remains abundant in Bossematie Forest and Taï National Park and periphery habitat), SW Ghana (where recently observed only once during surveys of Draw River, Boi-Tano and Krokasua Forest Reserves) and Togo (although this single record is perhaps best considered unconfirmed). Local status varies from uncommon to common, but recent observations suggest a rapid decline, e.g. it has been extirpated from Bia National Park in Ghana, and perhaps elsewhere in the country, including other protected areas; known at one time from total of 19 (of 93) squares in Ghana, but perhaps no longer present in seven of these. Main drivers of decline appear to be habitat fragmentation and loss, and hunting, and observations of hornbill abundance should be interpreted with regard to their movements, which are presumably related to fruit abundance. Deforestation is being driven by logging for timber, agricultural expansion and development, with some of the highest pressures on forest habitats occurring in Liberia, where there are plans to convert large areas of primary forest to oil palm plantations, while much forest in Opro River Forest Reserve, Ghana, has been replaced with teak plantations, whilst forest at Amama Shelterbelt Forest Reserve has been cleared for gardens and plantations. Trade might represent an, as yet under-appreciated, threat. Species appears to be important in dispersal of seeds of several forest trees and lianas.