Damara red-billed hornbill

Damara red-billed hornbill
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Bucerotiformes
Family:	Bucerotidae
Genus:	Tockus
Species complex:	Tockus erythrorhynchus complex
Species:	T. damarensis
Binomial name
Tockus damarensis (Shelley, 1888)

The Damara red-billed hornbill (Tockus damarensis) is a species of hornbill in the family Bucerotidae. It is found in southwest Angola and northern Namibia. All five red-billed hornbills were formerly considered conspecific.

Description

In Kunene Region, Namibia

Damara red-billed hornbills are small species of African hornbills. They have curved dark to bright red bills with their nostrils on the upper beak close to their eyes. Their heads are covered in greyish-white feathers with dark grey feathers running along the back of their heads and upper half of the neck. Like all red-billed hornbills, Damara red-billed hornbills have wings covered in circles of white feathers surrounded by black or dark brown feathers. Their tail feathers are black on the exterior and white on the interior and their legs are short and grey with small semi-sharp claws at the end. Their bellies are usually greyish white but can also be pure white.

Distribution

Damara red-billed hornbills can be found in southwestern Angola and northern Namibia. They can be found nesting or resting in local trees in grasslands or savannahs.

References

• Kemp, A.C. and W. Delport. 2002. Comments on the status of subspecies in the red-billed hornbill (Tockus erythrorhynchus) complex (Aves: Bucerotidae), with the description of a new taxon endemic to Tanzania. Annals of the Transvaal Museum 39: 1–8.
• Delport, W., A.C. Kemp, and J.W.H. Ferguson. 2004. Structure of an African Red-billed Hornbill (Tockus erythrorhynchus rufirostris and T. e. damarensis) hybrid zone as revealed by morphology, behavior, and breeding biology. Auk 121: 565–586.