Buceros bicornis
Silhouette: PhyloPic
In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%
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 |
Likely
About 50% of wildlife watchers report a Great Hornbill sighting in Royal Manas National Park on a given day, based on 757 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 8th most-seen of the 388 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.
April
In that month about 60% of wildlife watchers report a Great Hornbill in Royal Manas National Park on a given day, against about 30% in December, the lowest month. August and September have too few records to rate.
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.
Yes
Of the 13 parks where we can rate Great Hornbill sightings, Royal Manas National Park has the highest daily chance: about 50%. Next come Khao Yai National Park (Thailand, about 50%) and Kaeng Krachan National Park (Thailand, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Bucerotidae
The closest relatives of the Great Hornbill that you can see in Royal Manas National Park (family Bucerotidae, Hornbills) are Rufous-necked Hornbill (about 40%) and Wreathed Hornbill (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Great Hornbill is recorded against all the birds logged in Royal Manas National Park (757 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.
