{"id":54065,"date":"2025-07-09T12:00:42","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T06:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=54065"},"modified":"2025-07-09T13:05:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T07:35:26","slug":"great-hornbill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/great-hornbill\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Hornbill"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>Great Hornbill Latest News<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a rare and remarkable sighting, the Malamuzhakki Vezhambal (Great Hornbill), Kerala\u2019s State bird, was spotted in the coastal belt of Kakkampara, near Ezhimala in Kannur, an area far from its usual forested habitats.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Great Hornbill<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The great hornbill, also known as the <\/span><b>concave-casqued hornbill<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>great Indian hornbill, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">or <\/span><b>great pied hornbil<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">l, is a <\/span><b>large bird <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and one of the l<\/span><b>arger members of the hornbill family.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scientific Name: Buceros bicornis<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Distribution<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is found in the I<\/span><b>ndian subcontinent <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><b>Southeast Asia.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the subcontinent they are found in a few forest areas in the <\/span><b>Western Ghats <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and in the <\/span><b>forests along the Himalayas.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Habitat<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Great hornbills reside in w<\/span><b>et evergreen and deciduous old-growth forests<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at elevations of 600 to 2000 meters (1968.5 to 6561 feet). <\/span><b>For nesting,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> they prefer <\/span><b>trees that tower above the canopy level.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Features<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are fairly large, ranging from 95 to 120 cm in length and featuring a wingspan of 151 to 178 cm. On average, they weigh 3 kg.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are <\/span><b>vividly colored<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and easily recognizable. The <\/span><b>body, head, and wings <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">are <\/span><b>primarily black; <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the a<\/span><b>bdomen and neck are white. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>tail is white<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and is crossed by a subterminal black band.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A <\/span><b>preen gland near the tail secretes tinted oil, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">which is spread across the feathers by the bird during grooming. This may<\/span><b> give the bill, neck, casque, and tail and wing feathers coloration <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">varying from <\/span><b>yellow to red.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The most <\/span><b>recognizable feature<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of hornbills is the <\/span><b>casque<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which is a <\/span><b>hollow structure located on top of the bill<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It may be used by males to fight with other males and attract females.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Like many other hornbills, these birds have <\/span><b>prominent eyelashes.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Males and females are similar except that the irises of males are red while those of females are white, and males have slightly larger bills and casques.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is <\/span><b>predominantly frugivorous,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> but is an opportunist and will prey on small mammals, reptiles, and birds.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Conservation Status:<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>IUCN Red List: Vulnerable<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/kerala\/rare-great-hornbill-sighting-in-ezhimala-sparks-hope-for-biodiversity\/article69787060.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TH<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Great Hornbill is a large, striking bird and among the largest in the hornbill family, known for its vibrant casque and vital role in forest ecology. Read more about Great Hornbill, Habitat, IUCN Status, Latest System<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":54085,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1419],"class_list":{"0":"post-54065","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-great-hornbill","9":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}