Palawan Hornbill Anthracoceros marchei Scientific name definitions

55 cm; male 580–920 g. Medium-sized hornbill with all-black plumage , apart from white tail. Male has pale ivory-­yellow casque and bill , with black base to lower mandible; bare skin around eye and on throat white , tinged blue; eyes reddish-brown, black orbital ring. Female smaller; has smaller bill and casque with greyish wash; dark grey-brown eyes. Juvenile with even smaller, paler bill with grey base, no black ring around dark grey eye.

Calamian Is (Busuanga, Calawit and Culion), Palawan and Balabac I, in W Philippines.

Inhabits primary and secondary ­evergreen forest ; also enters mangrove swamps and sometimes observed in areas of subsistence farming; occurs up to 900 m.

Mainlyfruit , alsoinsects and lizards recorded in their diet. Forages at any level, from canopy to ground, usually in small groups; groups detected by flapping noises or shrill, raucous calls.

A series of soft cackling “kiew” notes, similar to A. albirostris. Also a raucous “caaaww” or “kreek-kreek” given mostly at dawn and dusk (1 Kemp, A.C. (1995). Bird Families of the World. The Hornbills: Bucerotiformes. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Close ).

VULNERABLE. CITES II. Restricted-range species: present in Palawan EBA. Fragmented range, on no more than five islands, the three smallest of which are now largely cleared of forest. Currently reported as relatively common only at St Paul’s Subterranean River National Park, on Palawan. Whole island of Palawan is a Biosphere Reserve, with hunting prohibited, but enforcement of protective laws is difficult. Species known still to be collected from nest for food and for pet trade, and much of remaining forest still seriously threatened by logging and mining activities. Urgent need for further survey, study of life history and biology, and studies of captive individuals. The only hornbill species in the Palawan group.