Birds are a very cute animal, there are tens of thousands of species of birds in the world, one of which is a bird with a very large mouth, it is the hornbill, which occupies almost 1/3 of the length, but the hornbill is also divided into different species, then do you know what kind of hornbill is the world's largest? It is the charismatic helmeted hornbill, it is much larger than the average hornbill, hurry up and see how big it is!
Helmeted hornbills are not a family of many, there are only more than 50 species in total, and their exaggerated large beaks are usually quite impressive. It is the largest of all the hornbills, with a body length of up to 120 cm, which is almost the height of a child of about 10 years old, of which the male weighs 3.1 kg, which is the largest hornbill in the world, mainly distributed in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries.
Most of the hornbills have a specially shaped helmet protrusion on top of their huge beaks, which look like the horns of a rhinoceros. Compared to other hornbills, which bend slightly downwards, the helmeted hornbills have a straight beak. The helmeted hornbills have a helmet protrusion that is close to a cylinder in shape, with anterior end forming a flat surface with a flat part of the yellow and a red overall color, which is stained with red wax secreted by the tail lipid glands.
Hornbills are very large, some species can be more than 1m long, and the smallest species are about 30cm. In the entire family Hornbill, the helmeted hornbill is second only to the two species of hornbills in the African genus, and the two-horned hornbill belongs to the largest hornbill in Asia. Although it is not the largest, it is the longest in the hornbill family, reaching 110 to 120 cm, not including the extension of its tail feathers up to 50 cm long. Helmeted hornbills also weigh a lot, with males around 3 kg and females slightly smaller, about 2.7 kg.
Helmeted hornbills have brown cheeks, most of the feathers are black-brown, the abdomen, underwings, and the tip of the feathers are white, and the tail feathers are mostly white, with only a black band near the tip. The tail feathers of the helmeted hornbill are different from other species in the hornbill family, and the central tail feathers are particularly elongated, reaching up to 1 meter, and are much longer than other tail feathers.
However, compared with the oversized size of the helmeted hornbills, their peculiar heads are more attractive, the helmeted hornbills have solid girdles, the weight accounts for 10% of the total weight of their bodies, and the shape is like a round helmet, red on the outside and yellow on the inside, looking very imposing and dazzling, becoming a way for them to attract the attention of the opposite sex.
Helmeted hornbill dazzling skull also brought it a catastrophe, the general bird skull is hollow, can not be carved, and helmeted hornbill head part is solid, and the texture is delicate, easy to carve, comparable to ivory, so since ancient helmet hornbill skull has become an important ornament, made of various crafts are widely collected, the literary and entertainment circles call it crane top red. At present, Singapore has become regionally extinct, although all countries strictly prohibit the trade in various wildlife products, but the loss of money trading is not done, and the head killing thing is done, from ancient times to the present.
In ancient China, the helmeted hornbill skull became an ornament for the prince to show his identity, and was called "crane top red" because of its red color and yellow on the inside. Such rare objects from Nanyang were often stored in the warehouses of wealthy families. In other countries, the skull of the helmeted hornbill is also considered a treasure, which further makes the species's accelerated extinction path.
From the 20th century onwards, helmeted hornbills declined dramatically, and as humans' claws grew deeper into the rainforest, remote habitats could not be used as a barrier to protect their survival. It is because of the pursuit of countless collectors that a large number of helmeted hornbills are hunted and skulls are made into playthings. In modern times, the helmeted hornbill has been hunted by humans in large numbers, and its number has decreased dramatically, and it has become an endangered species.