Rhyticeros plicatus
Silhouette: Charles J. Sharp and T. Michael Keesey · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%
Blyth's hornbill (Rhyticeros plicatus), also known as the Papuan hornbill, is a large hornbill inhabiting the forest canopy in Wallacea and Melanesia. Its local name in Tok Pisin is kokomo. Previously, this hornbill was placed in the genus Aceros. It has often been lumped with the plain-pouched hornbill (R. subruficollis), and sometimes considered to include the Narcondam hornbill (R. narcondami) and the wreathed hornbill (R. undulatus) as subspecies.
The common name commemorates Edward Blyth (1810–1873), English zoologist and curator of the museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Up to 91 cm (36 in) in length, the adult male has mainly black plumage with a golden or orange-buff head, white throat and a white tail. Its irises are reddish brown, and the eye is surrounded by naked pale blue skin. The female is a smaller, mainly black bird with a white throat and tail. Both sexes have a very large horn-coloured bill and casque. Young birds of both sexes resemble the male. Adults have up to eight folds on the pale casque, depending on age, while young birds have none.
In flight, the sound of its wings is loud and distinctive, a rushing noise that has been compared to... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Raja Ampat | 🇮🇩 Indonesia |
More parks will be added in future updates.
No species of the same family or order lives in Raja Ampat, so these are its closest relatives here: other birds.
Likely
About 60% of wildlife watchers report a Papuan Hornbill sighting in Raja Ampat on a given day, based on 983 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 4th most-seen of the 200 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 90%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
August
In that month about 70% of wildlife watchers report a Papuan Hornbill in Raja Ampat on a given day, against about 50% in February–March, September and December, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Papuan Hornbill sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Raja Ampat, in our data
Raja Ampat is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Papuan Hornbill sightings: about 60% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Papuan Hornbill is recorded against all the birds logged in Raja Ampat (983 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.
