![]() They can live for up to 70 years in captivity, for one. However, having researched these curious animals at length, I’ve come to think that the real reason for so much symbolism to be attached to one bird is due to the hornbill’s behavior. ![]() They are striking creatures. Sometimes quite beautiful, sometimes more than a little ugly sometimes big, sometimes small sometimes pleasing to the eye, sometimes causing the heart to sink. Look at a hornbill, like the greater hornbill, for example, and it becomes immediately clear why you might attach symbolism to one. We’ll close with a look at modern-day interpretations of hornbill symbolism, and at the current conservation status of the hornbill family’s many species. In this article, we’ll be looking at the strange behavior of the hornbill, as well as the many different symbolic meanings behind their presence and that behavior in cultures around the world. From the Dayak and Iban of Borneo, Malaysia and Indonesia, to the Naga of India and Myanmar and countless tribal peoples in sub-Saharan Africa, seeing, killing, or dreaming of a hornbill can be a very many different things. Wherever hornbills are found, there have been symbols, myths, rituals and festivals attached to them by the indigenous peoples living nearby. Their tongues, being too short to reach the end of their long bills, force hornbills to eat by throwing food to the back of their throat with a flick of their large heads. Hornbills are omnivorous birds, with a mostly-frugivorous disposition (meaning that their diet consists mostly of fruit), though they will eat insects and small animals, too. The birds are typically tree-dwelling, though there are a number of ground hornbills (most commonly found in Africa), which are as big as turkeys and spend most of their time wandering the open plains. There are currently 55 recognised species of hornbill, their distribution split fairly equally throughout the three continents and subcontinents in which they are found. These bills are often topped by a cylindrical shape called a ‘casque’ which has been prized by many cultures over the centuries. They are immediately recognisable for their down-curving bill (which looks like a cow’s horn), which is often brightly colored (orange, yellow, red and/or blue and gray) in contrast to their much more mute, sometimes drab plumage. Hornbills are a very peculiar-looking family of birds (Bucerotidae), belonging to the sub-tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Melanesia.
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