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Silvery-Cheeked Hornbill | Bycanistes brevis
Zilveroorneushoornvogel | Cálao Cariplateado
The Silvery-Cheeked Hornbill is the largest forest hornbill of the region, black and white with a huge ivory casque on the male's bill. Pairs and flocks fly high over the canopy of the montane and lowland forests of the east on loudly whooshing wingbeats.
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Voice
A loud, raucous braying quaark-quaark, often from several birds at once, and a hoarse growling grrak. The wingbeats produce a heavy whooshing sound audible over a long distance, which often gives the birds away before their calls.
Recording: Valentijn Hermans — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
About 80 cm. Head, neck, breast, wings and tail are black; lower back, rump, belly and undertail coverts white. The feathers of the cheeks and ear coverts have silvery-grey tips, giving the head a grey sheen. The male has a very large, high, cream to ivory casque reaching back over the crown; in the female the casque is much smaller and the bill darker. The bare skin around the eye is bluish. In flight the wings are wholly black, with no white trailing edge, and the white rear body stands out. Juveniles have a small bill without a casque.
Confusion species
Trumpeter Hornbill (Bycanistes bucinator) is clearly smaller, with a greyer, lower casque, pink skin around the eye and in flight a broad white trailing edge to the wing. Crowned Hornbill (Lophoceros alboterminatus) is much smaller, brownish-black with a red bill, and flies with an undulating flight. Southern Ground Hornbill (Bucorvus leadbeateri) is wholly black with red throat skin and lives on the ground in open country.
Habitat
Evergreen montane forest, lowland forest and tall riverine forest, locally also forest edge and plantations with fruiting trees. It feeds mainly on fruit, especially figs, supplemented with insects, eggs and nestlings. In the breeding season it needs large trees with roomy cavities; the female seals herself in with mud and droppings.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of southern Africa.
Range and movements
Within the region restricted to the east: eastern Zimbabwe (Chimanimani, Chirinda and the Haroni-Rusitu area), central Mozambique (including Mount Gorongosa and the interior of Manica and Sofala) and a few forest areas in Malawi. Beyond the region it extends north through Tanzania and Kenya to Ethiopia.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Best in the lowland forests of Haroni-Rusitu and at Chirinda in eastern Zimbabwe, or on the slopes of Mount Gorongosa. Listen in the early morning for whooshing wings and the braying chorus, and check fig trees with ripe fruit, where flocks may gather. The white rear body and wholly black wings in flight confirm the species.
Conservation status
Not threatened, but within the region dependent on a small number of fragmented forests. Clearance of lowland forest for farming and timber threatens the local populations in Zimbabwe and Mozambique, and the species needs large old trees for nesting. Elsewhere in East Africa it is still locally common.
Scientific name
Bycanistes brevis | Friedmann, 1929
Friedmann described the species in 1929 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Bycanistes was introduced in 1860 by Cabanis & Heine. Bycanistes comes from the Greek bykanistēs, 'trumpeter' — for the loud, braying and trumpeting calls of these hornbills. brevis is Latin for 'short'; what exactly the name refers to is not clearly recorded. The specimen the first description was based on came from Mount Lutindi, Usambara Mountains, Tanzania.