India’s fascinating hornbills and Their features: UPSC Daily Important Topic | 13 December 2022

■ India’s fascinating hornbills and Their features-

✅The logo for India’s upcoming G20 presidency was officially unveiled recently at the Hornbill festival in Nagaland.

✅Brings attention to a family of some of the largest, most magnificent birds in our country.

● Great Hornbill:

✅Occurrence: Himalayan foothills, the Northeast and the Western Ghats.

✅Recognition:  state bird of Arunachal Pradesh and Kerala.

✅Physical features: Wingspan – 5 feet

● Other species:

✅Wreathed hornbill, the brown hornbill and the rufous-necked hornbill

✅Slightly smaller

✅Found only in Northeast India

✅Oriental pied hornbill

✅Found in the Rajaji National Park, Uttarakhand

✅Malabar grey hornbill

✅Found in Western Ghats

✅Indian grey hornbill

✅Smallest sized hornbill

✅Found all over (except the Thar Desert)

● Characteristics of the bird:

✅Living preferences: tall trees (breast height being 1.5 metres or more).

✅Environmental relationship: Mutualism with the trees where they nest.

✅Eating preferences: Large fruit-eating birds

✅Environmental propagation: Disperse the seeds of ~80 rainforest trees.

● Decline in the population:

✅Characteristic of the decline: Slow as they are long lived (~40 years)

✅Large size: makes them prone to being hunted

✅Helmeted hornbill of Sumatra and Borneo: critically endangered

✅Due to its helmet-like casque (a horny outgrowth over the skull), aka red ivory, is highly prized.