Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill (Tockus leucomelas)

Family
Bucerotidae (Hornbills)

Size
55 cm

First Described (Guide)
(Lichtenstein, 1842)

Habitat
Subtropical and tropical lowland dry grassland and forest, dry savanna.

Range (Guide)

Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

South-western Angola and Namibia east to southern Malawi, western Mozambique and northern South Africa.

Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).

Status LC
For more information see BirdLife International Species Factsheet.

Voice
A rapid, hollow-sounding 'tok tok tok tok tok tokatokatoka' uttered with head lowered and wings fanned.

Xeno-Canto Sound Files (more (10)...)

Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill (Tockus leucomelas) [XC546352]
by id from Hoedspruit, South Africa (begging call, song)

Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill (Tockus leucomelas) [XC877639]
by Marc Anderson from Manyeleti Game Reserve, South Africa (duet, song)

Subspecies
Sometimes considered to form a superspecies with Eastern Yellow-billed Hornbill (Tockus flavirostris) and in the past treated as conspecific, but differs in voice and bare-part colours. Both are closely related to Von der Decken's Hornbill (Tockus deckeni), and also, more distantly, to Monteiro's Hornbill (Tockus monteiri) and Red-billed Hornbill (Tockus erythrorhynchus), based on similar calls and behaviour, and DNA studies. Birds from Angola described as subspecies elegans, on basis of smaller size, paler plumage and differences in bare-part colours, and those from east of range as parvior, on basis of smaller size, but degree of variation in all populations uncertain. Further study is required.

The following 2 subspecies are recognised:

elegans Hartlaub, 1865 - South-western Angola.
leucomelas (Lichtenstein, MHK, 1842) - Arid savanna of south-central and southern Africa.

References
See References.

Files:

JPG files for Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill (Tockus leucomelas) - 10 files

More Information

BirdLife International

For more information about the Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill see... Show Articles

BirdLife International Species Factsheet.

Articles about the Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill

If you would like to read any articles about the Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill...

Show Articles (0)

No Pictures of Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill

If Birdpedia has no pictures of Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill or you would like to see more, then try the following...

Show External Images from BING

From BING (10)

No Videos of Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill

If Birdpedia has no videos of Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill or you would like to see more, then try the following..

Show External Videos

From BING (0)

Where can I observe this species?

Select an area (or leave blank) to see locations where this species has been recorded.

Area

All

Optional: Complete the following if you wish to restrict the reserve to within a given distance of a location.

Please enter the Latitude and Longitiude of a given location together with the maximum distance (km) to display a list of reserves within that distance. You must enter a Latitude, a Longitude and a distance greater than 0.

Latitude: (Decimal degrees takes precedence)

Deg	Min	Sec			Decimal degrees (Include compass setting or value)
				or	GPS help

Longitude: (Decimal degrees takes precedence)

Deg	Min	Sec			Decimal degrees (Include compass setting or value)
				or	Find GPS using Google Maps

Distance	Bearing
		Get Sample GPS readings

On What Field Trips was this species observed?

Select an area (or leave blank), and a date range, to see field trips on which this species has been recorded.

Area

All

From	To

Latitude: (Decimal degrees takes precedence)

Deg	Min	Sec			Decimal degrees (Include compass setting or value)
				or	GPS help

Longitude: (Decimal degrees takes precedence)

Deg	Min	Sec			Decimal degrees (Include compass setting or value)
				or

Distance	Bearing
		Get Sample GPS readings

Latest Sightings for Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill