GREAT PIED HORNBILL (Buceros Bicornis R Vulture+: Male 130 cm):  Female smaller.  Bill large, horn shaped yellow and black with concave shade casqued.  Wings black with two white bars, tail white with a black sub terminal band. Evergreen and moist-deciduous forest.  Lower Himalayas from Kumar east to Arunachal Pradesh; NE. Hill states; Western Ghats complex from Khandala (Maharashtra) south to Kerala and West Tamil Nadu, Bangladesh (Chittagong hill tracts).

1. LOCAL NAMES: Homrai (Nepal); Banrao (Hindi; Kumaon); Kugrong, Kudong (Lepcha); Garuda (Kannada); Garud (Marathi); Malamozakki (=’mountain-shaking’), Vezhambal, Komban vezhambal (Malayalam); Raj dhanesh (Bengal); Raj dhanesh, Hivang (Assam); Dao yung (Cachar); Inrui go (Kacha Naga).
2. SIZE: Vulture
3. FIELD CHARACTERS: A large black and white hornbill with a massive horn shaped yellow and black bill with a large concave topped casque, U-shaped when viewed from front.  Face, back, underparts and wigs black.  Wings with two white bars.  Neck, lower abdomen, tail-covers and tail white.  Tail with a black sub-terminal band.  Feathers of neck and wing bands often tinged yellow from being smeared with exudation of tail gland.
4. DISTRIBUTION: Resident and locally migratory from about Khandala near mumbai to the extreme Southern tip of the Western Ghats.  Himalayas from Kumaon eastwards to Arunachal Pradesh and hills south of Brahmaputra.  Bangladesh.
5. HABITS: Affects evergreen and moist-deciduous forest from plains to 1500m in the Western Ghats; 2000m in the Himalayas.  Arboreal, occasionally descends to the ground.  In pairs or small parties, large gatherings at abundantly fruiting trees.  Often most communally in congregations of over 100.  Covers a large feeding circuit.  Flight labored and noisy, heard at considerable distances.
6. FOOD: Chiefly wild figs, drupes and fruits and animals such as lizards, snakes, nestlings etc.
7. CALL: Hoarse, grunts, barks and roars.  A distinctive very loud reverberating tok repeated at regular intervals.
8. NESTING: Season- February to April.  Nest- in the hollow of a giant forest tree.  Breeding as in other hornbill.  Eggs- usually 2.  The species is greatly endangered by loss of habitat and nesting trees.  A fully protected species.