Rhinoceros Hornbill Gathering

By Kerri Kane

Pencil, layered on acrylic painted background.

So many amazing creatures living in the Southeast Asia area! This is a rhinoceros hornbill. It’s one of the largest hornbills and has a gold colored horn, called a casque, on the top of its beak. The casque is hollow and made up of keratin, like our fingernails. It works as a resonating chamber, amplifying the bird’s calls, like a, well like a horn 🙂 So they can be heard from miles away! This kind of hornbill has one of the largest and most impressive “horns” — a feature they share with hadrosaurids from more than 60 million years ago!