Wild Facts

Welcome to another new week of Wild Facts.  We are going to start the week off discovering an interesting bird.  This is another animal that was recommended by my brother, Clayton.  Enough of the idle chit chat, let’s head over to Africa to learn about the Abyssinian Ground-Hornbill.

This large bird can be found hanging out in the grasslands and savannas of Africa, just north of the equator.  There are several things that we will notice first about this unique bird.  A few of their characteristics include the casque on top of their head, stubby legs, an inflatable throat pouch and of course incredibly long eyelashes.

So where should we start? Well, I guess we can begin with the odd looking casque on the top of their head.  This is believed to help with enhancing their vocalizations so all of their friends can hear them.  The bare legs of this bird are perfect for walking and running throughout the grasslands of Africa.  Let’s move onto the more interesting features of this particular hornbill.

You will notice that this bird as a blue or red throat pouch, also called a wattle.  This wattle is used in courtship with the males puffing it out to impress the ladies in the area.  Interestingly enough, both males and females have this throat pouch but the women have a nice blue coloured wattle while the males are red coloured.  At least this makes it easy for us to tell the males and females apart.

I guess now is a good time to solve the mystery that was bugging my brother so much.  What is the purpose of the long eyelashes? Well first of all, these eyelashes that most women would kill for are actually modified feathers.  I doubt women would want feathers growing on their eyes.  The purpose of these eyelashes are to protect the hornbill’s eyes from elements such as sand.  I wonder how much mascara these birds go through in a year?

I hope you all enjoyed today’s fact and stay tuned for another fun fact tomorrow!