Indian Grey Hornbill

Indian Grey Hornbill

Indian Grey Hornbill is the less famous of the hornbill family, though Salim Ali notes that this has a wider range of habitat in India than the Malabar Pied Hornbill, which I covered in a previous post. This bird is completely grey in colour, and has a considerably shorter beak than the other hornbills. It is still distinguishable, and is the easy mark for identification. Also, its long tail stands in sharp focus when viewed from a side.

Close-up while sitting on a coconut tree

I have seen this bird in much closer proximity to humans than the Malabar pied hornbill, in fact on coconut trees in the backyard of my friend's house in the middle of our village. I will long remember the early morning when I skipped over 2 compounds and ran to the roof of his house to get a close shot - and the bird stayed put when I was within 25 feet of the bird.

You can see this in and around Matthur in the early hours - even though I shot the picture on a coconut tree, Papal tree seems to be the favourite for this bird.

Scientific name for this bird is Ocyceros birostris.