Bucorvus

Russell & Séguin based their logic on the misguided principle that big-brained vertebrates would inevitably come to resemble hominids in posture and body shape, but if the speculations of some ornithologists are to be believed, then the awesome feathered dinosaur I watched at the zoo – a Southern ground hornbill Bucorvus leadbeateri – was a genuine sort of avian pseudo-hominid.

Bucorvids: post-Cretaceous maniraptorans on the savannah Darren Naish 2006

Russell & Séguin based their logic on the misguided principle that big-brained vertebrates would inevitably come to resemble hominids in posture and body shape, but if the speculations of some ornithologists are to be believed, then the awesome feathered dinosaur I watched at the zoo – a Southern ground hornbill Bucorvus leadbeateri – was a genuine sort of avian pseudo-hominid.

Archive 2006-08-01 Darren Naish 2006

These include knob-billed duck Sarkidiornis melanotos, southern ground hornbill Bucorvus leadbeateri and bateleur eagle Terathopius ecaudatus, Stierling's woodpecker Dendrocopus stierlingi, whiteheaded lapwing Vanellus albiceps, the endemic Udzungwa forest partridge Xenoperdix udzungwensis (VU) and rufous-winged sunbird Nectarinus rufipennis (VU).

Selous Game Reserve, Tanzania 2008

Bucorvus abyssinicus, on the vessels in its head and neck.

Archive 2006-08-01 Darren Naish 2006

They're entirely black except for their white primaries and for the bright red fleshy wattles that decorate their faces and throats (a second species in the genus Bucorvus [which means ‘big crow’], the Northern or Abyssinian ground hornbill B. abyssinicus, has red and blue facial skin in males and all-blue skin in females).

Archive 2006-08-01 Darren Naish 2006

Bucorvus abyssinicus, on the vessels in its head and neck.

Bucorvids: post-Cretaceous maniraptorans on the savannah Darren Naish 2006

Southern ground hornbill (Bucorvus leadbeateri) also occurs here.

Zambezian Baikiaea woodlands 2008

Birds include Denham's bustard Neotis cafra denhami, ground hornbill Bucorvus abyssinicus, violet turaco Musophaga violacea, spur-winged goose Plectropterus gambensis, white-faced tree duck Dendrocygna viduata, martial eagle Polemaetus bellicosus and bateleur Terathopius ecaudatus.

Niokolo-Koba National Park, Senegal 2008

They're entirely black except for their white primaries and for the bright red fleshy wattles that decorate their faces and throats (a second species in the genus Bucorvus [which means ‘big crow’], the Northern or Abyssinian ground hornbill B. abyssinicus, has red and blue facial skin in males and all-blue skin in females).

Bucorvids: post-Cretaceous maniraptorans on the savannah Darren Naish 2006

Indeed it’s been suggested at times that the Bucorvus species are so unusual compared to other upupiforms that they should get their own ‘family’, Bucorvidae (Kemp 1995).

Archive 2006-08-01 Darren Naish 2006