Austen's brown hornbill

Austen's brown hornbill (Anorrhinus austeni) is a species of hornbill found in forests from northeastern India and south to Vietnam and northern Thailand. It is sometimes included as a subspecies of Tickell's brown hornbill.

Austen's brown hornbill
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Bucerotiformes
Family: Bucerotidae
Genus: Anorrhinus
Species:
A. austeni
Binomial name
Anorrhinus austeni
Jerdon, 1872
Synonyms

Anorrhinus tickeli austeni, Ptilolaemus tickeli austeni, Ptilolaemus austeni

Description
Austen's Brown Hornbill (male, showing white cheeks and throat)

It is a medium-sized hornbill, brown with white-tipped tail. The male has white cheeks and throat, pale creamy bill, and rufous-brown underparts. The female has a dark head and throat. It inhabits the deciduous and evergreen forests from lowland plains to edge of pine and oak forest in hills, but mainly in the hill forest. It feeds on fruit and small animals; its diet includes many species of fruits, together with many arthropods, also bats, snakes, lizards, snails, earthworms, and chicks and eggs of other birds. It occurs in territorial groups of 2–15.

It is a co-operative breeder, with a dominant breeding pair, male helpers and additional females.[2] [3] They nest in natural cavities or in old holes of the great slaty woodpecker. In India, the best place to see this species is the Namdapha National Park, Changlang District, Arunachal Pradesh.

The name commemorates the naturalist Henry Haversham Godwin-Austen.

References
  1. BirdLife International (2012). "Anorrhinus austeni". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2013.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. Witmer, Mark (1993). "Cooperative Breeding by Rufous Hornbills on Mindanao Island, Philippines" (PDF). The Auk. 110 (4): 933–936. doi:10.2307/4088652. JSTOR 4088652.
  3. Aparajita Datta (2009). "Observations on Rufous-necked Aceros nipalensis and Austen's Brown Anorrhinus austeni Hornbills in Arunachal Pradesh: natural history, conservation status and Threats" (PDF). Indian Birds. 5 (4): 108–117.


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