Aceros – Rufous-necked hornbill

A large, richly colored forest bird that looks like it has been pieced together from different seasons: autumn around the head and neck, winter and midnight over the rest of the body. Adult males have a deep rusty-orange head, neck and underparts, with a glossy black back and wings and a white tail, so when they fly, the forest suddenly flashes black, white and burnt-orange at once.

Females are almost completely black, with only the tail and some wing-tips white and a pale throat patch, so a pair looks like they’re wearing coordinated but opposite outfits. Both sexes share the same long, ivory-colored bill, topped with a low casque and marked by dark, ladder-like ridges that deepen with age, a bit like growth rings carved into the beak.

Up close, the bare skin around the face and throat shows shades of blue and red, especially when the bird is excited or calling, adding even more color to an already dramatic head. When a rufous-necked hornbill glides over a valley ridge, wings whooshing loudly and tail spread, it looks every bit like a flagship of the Eastern Himalayan forests.

This species lives in a broken arc of hill and mountain forest from northeast India and Bhutan through northern Myanmar and southwest China to north-western Thailand and Vietnam. It favors steep ridges and ravines cloaked in broadleaf or mixed forest, where tall, old trees are scattered with fruiting figs and other canopy trees. Like most hornbills, it is heavily dependent on fruit, particularly large figs and other fleshy fruits that it swallows whole and later drops as seeds in its droppings, making it one of the main long-distance seed dispersers in the Eastern Himalayas.