Wednesday, August 27, 2025

Jackson's Hornbill

We first saw Jackson's hornbills (male and female) on the road leading out of the Savannah Lodge and into Kidepo Valley NP in northeastern Uganda. They were standing in the middle of the road. Our last late afternoon as we sat on the porch of our cottage, several males flew up to our cottage and one perched on the fence and peered into the outside pathway into our outdoor toilet and shower. 
Jackson's hornbills - male with reddish/orange bill and female with a black bill. 
Jackson's hornbill illustration (male) from Birds of the World.

Illustration (female) from Birds of the World.
It is a black and white hornbill with a white throat, neck and chest, a white back and white wing patches. It has black legs and feet, black wings, except for the white patches, a mostly black tail and black skin around the eye and a black stripe on the top of the head. Male bills are reddish/orange with some whitish/yellow at the tip, while female bills are black. Both sexes have a reddish orange patch on the upper neck. Except for the white spots on the wings and less yellow on the tip of the bill, it resembles the Von der Decken's hornbill and has been considered by some to be a subspecies of it. 
Range map from Birds of the World which looks to broad. Wikipedia notes that it is only found in northwestern Kenya and northeastern Uganda. Birds of the World adds southeastern South Sudan and questions any regular presence in southwestern Ethiopia, but shows it on the map. 



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