AVITOPIA - Ground-hornbills

The ground hornbill family occurs with two species only in sub-Saharan Africa. They are large birds with a body length of 90 cm to 100 cm. The beak is very large with an attachment on the upper mandible. The plumage is predominantly black, the primary wings are white and the bare skin on the head is red or red and blue. Ground hornbills live in steppes and savannas, where they claim territories of up to 100 square kilometers in size. They are very good runners, i.e. they can run up to 30 km/h. Their diet consists of invertebrates and small vertebrates. Similar to other hornbills, they breed in tree hollows and crevices in the rock, but the entrance is not sealed. As a rule, they lay two eggs every three years, but only one young survives the first four days. Nevertheless, they have the highest life expectancy of all birds.