Writhed-billed Hornbill

Taxobox
name = Writhed-billed Hornbill
status = CR | status_system = IUCN3.1
trend = down


image_caption = male
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
ordo = Coraciiformes
familia = Bucerotidae
genus = " Aceros "
species = "A. waldeni"
binomial = "Aceros waldeni"
binomial_authority = Sharpe, 1877
synonyms = "Aceros leucocephalus waldeni"

The Writhed-billed Hornbill ("Aceros waldeni"), more commonly known as the Visayan Wrinkled Hornbill, Rufous-headed Hornbill or Walden's Hornbill, is a critically endangered species of hornbill living in the rainforests on the islands of Negros and Panay in the Philippines. It is closely related to the Writhed Hornbill, but can be recognized by the yellow throat and ocular skin in the male, and the blue throat and ocular skin in the female (both throat and ocular skin are deep orange or red in both sexes of the Writhed Hornbill). Its binomial name commemorates the Scottish ornithologist Viscount Walden.

Habitat and behaviour

Rainforests with abundant fruit-bearing trees are the natural habitat of these birds. The Writhed-billed Hornbills live in small groups and are noisy. The Writhed-billed Hornbills use natural or carved-out hollows in tree trunks for its nest. As other hornbills, they reproduce very slowly. As lack of appropriate nesting sites is a problem, nest boxes are being attached to tree trunks in certain reserves.

Status

This is a critically endangered species. Writhed-billed Hornbills reproduce very slowly and thus are unable to survive high hunting pressures coupled with heavy logging of the rainforests. It is presumed extinct on Guimaras and now survives only on Negros and Panay. The total population has been estimated at less than 160, though recent work from the Central Panay Mountain Range suggests 600-700 pairs may remain there. No recent figures are available for Negros, where it may be functionally extinct. [ [http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/sites/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=966&m=0 Rufous-headed Hornbill.] BirdLife Internatioanl. Accessed 2008-10-08.]

References

* Database entry includes justification for why this species is critically endangered

External links

*ARKive - [http://www.arkive.org/species/GES/birds/Aceros_waldeni/ images and movies of the Visayan wrinkled hornbill "(Aceros waldeni)"]