African Grey Hornbill Identification Guide

Key Field Marks

• Medium-sized hornbill, about 46-51 cm (18-20 in) long including a long, graduated tail
• Grey-brown head, back, and breast; whitish belly and a whitish stripe down the back visible in flight
• Long, down-curved bill; males show a mostly dark bill with a distinct pale cream to yellowish patch or stripe at the base of the upper mandible, while females have a smaller, more uniformly dark bill
• Pale, narrow eyebrow-like stripe above the eye
• Long tail often held cocked, tipped with white outer feathers visible in flight

How to Separate It From Similar Species

• Red-billed Hornbill: has an all-red or orange-red bill rather than dark with a cream patch, and more contrasting black-and-white spotted plumage.
• Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill: shows a large, entirely bright yellow bill, quite different from the African Grey Hornbill's dark bill with limited pale markings.
• Crowned Hornbill: darker overall with a mostly red bill with a yellow tip, and found more in forest edge and thicket rather than open savanna.
• Overall drab grey-brown coloration paired with the two-toned dark-and-cream bill pattern is the most reliable way to separate this species from Africa's more colorfully billed small hornbills.

Where & When to See It

• Widespread resident of dry savanna, open woodland, and thornbush across sub-Saharan Africa, from Senegal east to Ethiopia and south to South Africa.
• Non-migratory, though some local movements occur in response to rainfall and fruiting patterns.
• Often seen in pairs or small family groups perched in the open on bare branches or flying between trees with a distinctive undulating flight.

Voice & Behavior Cues

• Song is a series of piping, whistled notes, often accelerating and rising, "pheet-pheet-pheet," frequently delivered from an exposed perch.
• Flight is strongly undulating with audible whooshing wingbeats typical of hornbills.
• Feeds on insects, small reptiles, and fruit, foraging both in trees and occasionally on the ground.
• Like other hornbills, nests in a tree cavity that the female seals herself into with mud and droppings, leaving only a narrow slit through which the male passes food during incubation.