Buceros bicornis
Silhouette: PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
The great hornbill (Buceros bicornis), also known as the concave-casqued hornbill, great Indian hornbill or great pied hornbill, is one of the larger members of the hornbill family. It occurs in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. It is predominantly frugivorous, but also preys on small mammals, reptiles, and birds. It has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 2018. It is known to have lived for nearly 50 years in captivity. Due to its large size and colour, and importance in many tribal cultures and rituals, the Government of Kerala declared it as the official Kerala state bird. It is also the state bird of Arunachal Pradesh.
The great hornbill was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the rhinoceros hornbill in the genus Buceros and coined the binomial name Buceros bicornis. Linnaeus specified the location as China. The genus name is from Latin becerus meaning "horned like an ox" which in turn is from the Ancient Greek boukerōs which combines bous meaning "ox" with kerōs meaning "horn". The specific bicornis is Latin and means "two-horned". The species... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Royal Manas National Park | 🇧🇹 Bhutan | |
| 2 | Khao Yai National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 3 | Kaeng Krachan National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 4 | Khao Sok National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 5 | Kaziranga National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Manas National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Jim Corbett National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Namdapha National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Periyar National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Royal Bardia National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 11 | Chitwan National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 12 | Cat Tien National Park | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 13 | Taman Negara National Park | 🇲🇾 Malaysia |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Phnom Penh | 🇰🇭 Cambodia | |
| 2 | Dehradun | 🇮🇳 India |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Great Hornbill sighting in Chitwan National Park on a given day, based on 152 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 138th most-seen of the 367 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January to March
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Great Hornbill in Chitwan National Park on a given day, against under 5% in July to November, the lowest months. Those are among Chitwan National Park's driest months, with about 30 mm of rain a month against 660 mm in July.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Great Hornbill sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
11th of 13
Of the 13 parks where we can rate Great Hornbill sightings, Chitwan National Park ranks 11th at about 10%. The best odds are in Royal Manas National Park (Bhutan, about 50%), Khao Yai National Park (Thailand, about 50%) and Kaeng Krachan National Park (Thailand, about 40%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Great Hornbill is recorded against all the birds logged in Chitwan National Park (152 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
