Writhed Hornbill Rhabdotorrhinus leucocephalus Scientific name definitions

60–65 cm; male 1012–1295 g. Medium-sized black hornbill with black-tipped white tail. Male has crown and hindneck dark brown, face and neck to upper breast white, stained creamy by preen oil; bill red, base of lower mandible with blue-black grooves, wrinkled casque red ; bare skin around eye and on throat deep orangey-red. Female smaller, head to breast all black, facial skin paler, more orange. Juvenile resembles adult male, but bill small, unridged, paler, no casque.

Dinagat, Camiguin Sur and Mindanao (S Philippines); also, reported by local inhabitants on Siargao.

Primary evergreen forest in lowlands, mainly below 500 m, but up to 1100 m.

Ranges widely in search of fruiting trees and communal roosts.

Mainly fruit, and some insects. Feeds in canopy of tall forest trees; sometimes hawks insects in flight. Forages over wide areas, often feeding and roosting in company of Buceros hydrocorax. Usually in pairs, rarely in flocks of as many as 37 birds.

A repeated, short gruff bark “grrah”.

Almost unknown in wild. Sealed nest recorded in Mar; fledged young in Jan. In captivity, 2 eggs, female emerges at same time as chicks fledge , total nesting cycle 92 days, re-lays after failure.

Not globally threatened. CITES II. Currently considered Near-threatened. Restricted-range species: present in Mindanao and the Eastern Visayas EBA. Previously considered Endangered. Used to be common on Mindanao but now apparently rare in general, even in larger forest reserves on Mt Apo, though still locally quite common in places. Forest now much reduced on smaller islands, where species probably either rare or extinct. Its requirement for primary forest, along with its wide-ranging habits and low overall density, render it vulnerable; also subjected to pressure from hunting and trapping for wild bird trade.