Malabar Grey Hornbill

The Malabar grey hornbill is a true child of the Western Ghats, endemic to these forests and rarely found far from the fruiting trees of the canopy. Its loud, cackling calls often give it away long before the bird itself leans into view.

I have photographed them in the forests of Coorg in Karnataka and at Thattekad in Kerala, where mixed flocks and fruiting trees draw them into the open. They are restless feeders, and much of the challenge is anticipating which branch a bird will move to next as it works through the fruit.

Like all hornbills, they depend on old, cavity-bearing trees for nesting — a quiet reminder that photographing them well and keeping their forests standing are, in the end, the same cause.