Walden's hornbill locally called dulungan, also known as the Visayan wrinkled hornbill, rufous-headed hornbill or writhe-billed hornbill, is an endangered species of hornbill living in the rainforests on the islands of Negros and Panay in the Philippines. It is closely related to the writhed hornbill, but can be recognized by the yellow throat and ocular skin in the male, and the blue throat and ocular skin in the female. Its binomial name commemorates the Scottish ornithologist Viscount Walden.
Region
Philippine Visayas
Typical Environment
Occurs in remaining lowland primary and mature secondary rainforests on Panay and Negros, favoring evergreen dipterocarp and limestone forests. It concentrates where large fruiting trees (especially figs) are abundant and where old trees provide nesting cavities. The species can use forest edges and riparian corridors but depends on extensive intact forest for breeding. Nesting typically occurs in large cavity-bearing trees within undisturbed tracts.
Altitude Range
0–1100 m
Climate Zone
Tropical
Ease of Keeping
Beginner friendly: 1/5
Locally called dulungan, this hornbill is confined to the Visayan islands of Negros and Panay in the Philippines. The female seals herself inside a tree cavity during nesting, relying on the male to deliver food through a narrow slit. As a key seed disperser of large-fruited trees, it helps maintain lowland rainforest diversity, but it is severely threatened by habitat loss and hunting.
Male carrying a small fruit. As most other hornbills, this species is primarily a frugivore.
Temperament
social and active
Flight Pattern
strong flier with heavy wingbeats and short glides
Social Behavior
Usually found in pairs or small family groups, sometimes gathering at fruiting trees. Forms long-term pair bonds. Nests in large tree cavities; the female seals the entrance with a plaster of mud and feces, leaving a slit through which the male feeds her and the chicks until fledging.
Migratory Pattern
Resident
Song Description
Vocalizations include loud honking, nasal cackles, and barking notes that carry through the forest. The powerful whoosh of its wingbeats is often heard before the bird is seen.
Plumage
Male with rufous-orange head and neck, glossy black body and wings, and a white tail with a black terminal band; female mostly black with contrasting blue skin on face and throat. Both sexes have a wrinkled casque on the long bill.
Diet
Primarily consumes figs and other large rainforest fruits, swallowing many items whole and later regurgitating seeds. Supplements diet with insects, small reptiles, and occasionally other small animals, especially when feeding young. Plays an important role in long-distance seed dispersal for many canopy trees. May visit cultivated fruit when wild resources are scarce.
Preferred Environment
Forages mainly in the mid to upper canopy of primary forest, focusing on fruiting trees along ridges and valley bottoms. Also uses gallery forests and edges adjacent to intact blocks, but relies on large trees within core forest.
