Thai Stamp Bird – 2

Thai Stamp Bird – 2 … Hornbill is a symbol of clean ecosystem. They can’t tolerate pollution. If you see them, meaning the place is unpolluted, to a certain level, of course. Thailand had many of them in the past, same as many countries in this region. However, due land invasion for agriculture and community expansion, some of many factors, they flee further and further away till risk of extinction. Many campaign have been developed to support them. Stamp is one of the way we remind people of this endanger specie.

https://www.everythingfromthailand.com/product-category/stamp/

Hornbills (Bucerotidae) are a family of bird found in tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia and Melanesia. They are characterized by a long, down-curved bill which is frequently brightly colored and sometimes has a casque on the upper mandible.

Both the common English and the scientific name of the family refer to the shape of the bill, “buceros” being “cow horn” in Greek. Hornbills have a two-lobed kidney. They are the only birds in which the first and second neck vertebrae (the atlas and axis respectively) are fused together; this probably provides a more stable platform for carrying the bill.^[1]

The family is omnivorous, feeding on fruit and small animals. They are monogamous breeders nesting in natural cavities in trees and sometimes cliffs. A number of mainly insular species of hornbill with small ranges are threatened with extinction, namely in Southeast Asia.

In the Neotropical realm, toucans occupy the hornbills’ ecological niche, an example of convergent evolution. Despite their close appearances, the two groups are not related, with toucans being allied with the woodpeckers, honeyguides and several families of barbet, while hornbills (and their close relatives the ground hornbills) are allied with the hoopoes and wood-hoopoes.^[2]