Does anyone own a hornbill

I went to the bird store and fell in love with a hornbill and wondered if anyone had a experience with this species.


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Are they legal without a permit? I'm not sure of the laws... I don't think they are illegal, but just check it out just in case.

Another thing to consider is whether or not the bird was wild-caught. Often, even though people will say that they are captive bred, that is not the case. For an animal to be wild-caught, they are yanked out of their natural environment, and that can have a huge impact on their mental health and their adjustment to captive life.
I recommend you watch this video: [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf4sxKPIMuw"]Don't Buy Wild Birds As Pets | Rescue Bird[/ame] It is a story of someone who rescued a wild caught hornbill from a pet store. She is an exotics keeper that is also an animal educator and does programmes and shows to educate others.

They are very much birds that are, from my research, a bit more challenging to care for in captivity, even when captive bred.

Since they require very specific dietary requirements (fruit, protein - like worms (and insects) - some type of low-iron pellet I am sure), and are very different from any other pet bird, so just take that into consideration. I am not that knowledgeable, so maybe others will have more insight.

A quick google search turned up at least a few US breeders of these birds. They are rare in the pet trade, but not necessarily wild caught. We just don't see them much on this forum (sort of like we don't see many BOPs or corvids either, but that doesn't mean if someone owns a hawk or crow it was snatched from the wild). Just be sure you're buying from a reputable store or breeder. They are not true parrots, rather part of the softbill family with toucans and lorikeets. The only current member I know of with a similar species is Terry57, who has Dactyl who's species I can't remember but he is some kind of toucan I think.

A couple things to keep in mind with these kind of softbills (though I do see you already have lorikeets so you already have some softbill experience):

-They MUST have a flight aviary. Unlike hookbills (aka parrots), they cannot use their beaks to climb, therefore must have enough room to hop and fly from perch to perch. For their size, their enclosure requirements are huge. You need to be certain you have space for a suitable sized aviary indoors.

-Softbills eat softer diets than parrots and require a greater quantity of fresh fruit, which will take extra time to prepare and cost more. Some species also need to eat live bugs as well, as I believe they have higher protein needs than parrots. I couldn't say if this species needs to eat bugs, but you should be sure if they do you're ok with feeding them worms or whatever bugs they like to eat.

-Due to their diet, they are supposedly significantly messier than parrots. Both the increased amount of wet food to be flung around and the fact their poop is much more liquid than parrot poop. Some species can actually projectile shoot poop. From what I've heard, softbills make parrots look like OCD clean freaks.

If I were you, I wouldn't discount getting one, but I would consider the decision keeping in mind there are reasons most softbill species never took off in the pet trade. If you have a large house with ample room to house an indoor aviary and don't mind a mess and really love this guy/girl then it appears you have enough bird experience you'd likely be able to handle a new friend I'd definitely do more research and for sure consult with an avian vet about care requirements given their rarity and fact their care needs differ a bit from parrots.

Kiwibird said:

Some species can actually projectile shoot poop. From what I've heard, softbills make parrots look like OCD clean freaks.

Click to expand...

this line made me chuckle. Aren't birds just the funniest things? haha

I love hornbills! You can find them sometimes here, but always with a hefty price tag.

My Dactyl is a Bearded Barbet, and he eats the low iron pellets that reeb mentioned (Nutribird Uni). He also eats fresh fruit twice a day, mealworms, Superworms and he does like some veggies. I'm not sure how close that is to a hornbill's diet.
He is really messy, as April mentioned. We have shower curtains on the walls around his flight because of how his poop splatters against them.

What species of hornbill are you looking at? They are all amazing, one of my dream birds for sure.

Funny you should talk about hornbills. I visited birdmans parrots in Chicago and they have a von der Decken hornbill I almost took him home with me. Was only 950 thought he would be much more.


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Oh i love hornbills, the only ones I have seen are in Chester zoo in very large aviaries, house size! One in particular seems to like me as the few times ive been over the years he comes over to me.



As a life long Guinness drinker, a toucan would be my perfect bird other than Enzo.

Do you live in Chicago?
I just was in a shop there and I saw a Hornbill for the first time (outside of the Lion King or the zoo lol)


Are these common???

OMG CHADWICK! THAT WAS THE SAME HORNBILL I SAW! LOL


The bird is in that back corner across from the owner's desk - SMALL WORLD!--I don't even live in Chicago.
His shop is a little crazy, but he is a good guy and he cares about his birds. I imagine that he followed protocol when acquiring his---I didn't ask him whether he was re-homing it or whether he bought it as a baby, but it's amazing that we are talking about the same bird.

I've only had experience with Abyssinian ground hornbills in a conservative setting and they were meat eaters. What kind is the one you are looking at?

The one I’m looking at is a von der decken hornbill. I also wonder how they are with other birds I want to keep them safe. I wouldn’t be putting them together of course but I don’t want to be worried about them trying to go after other birds! I will ask the bird shop owner.


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