Hornbills of Africa

When you’re in Africa as a birder there is much to be seen. Although birds in the Netherlands certainly are nice to look upon and each bird is beautiful in it’s own way (except Egyptian Gooses they will always remain hideous), but Africa is a different playing field! Yes, sadly Egyptian Gooses are still an evil that can also not be avoided here, although at least they are actually wild here, but to compensate for the inconvenience there is a whole lot of other colourful birds. A family that I’ve grown especially fond of are the Hornbills. All colourful birds with huge beaks, what else do you want! That’s why I wanted to give this group of birds in a separate blog some extra attention.

I was lucky enough to see six species of Hornbill in Africa: Bradfields Hornbill, African Grey Hornbill, Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill, Southern Red-billed Hornbill and Damara Red-billed Hornbill. Only the first one eluded my camera. I was especially glad with the last one, because it can only be found in a relatively small area and I did only see it once. Below I’ve put all the Hornbills in a gallery that I’ve managed to snap a picture from. Sadly they are not the most artistic of photos, but luckily the birds don’t need a great photo in order to look great!