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A black southern ground hornbill with red facial skin walking on a dirt path.
Photo: Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Southern Ground Hornbill

Bucorvus leadbeateri

A big black African hornbill that walks the grasslands hunting small animals and booms to announce its territory.

🐦 Hornbills
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About the Southern Ground Hornbill

Southern ground hornbills live in drier areas from Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo south to Botswana and South Africa. They walk or run through thin grass and thorny scrub looking for prey: rodents, snakes, lizards, frogs, eggs, baby birds and insects. A few strikes of their heavy bill can kill even venomous snakes. Females have a bright blue patch on the throat.[1]

Quick facts

Scientific name
Bucorvus leadbeateri[1]
Diet
Carnivore. Rodents, snakes, lizards, frogs, eggs, nestlings and insects.[1]
Habitat
Grasslands and thorny scrub.[1]
Where it lives
Drier parts of central and southern Africa, from Kenya and the DR Congo to Botswana and South Africa.[1]
Group life
Small groups that raise young together.[1]
Babies
One or two eggs in a tree nest, incubated about 40 days.[1]
Conservation status
Vulnerable (IUCN Red List, assessed 2025).[2]

Fun facts

  • Females have a bright blue throat patch; males don't.[1]
  • A few strikes of its bill can kill a venomous snake.[1]
  • It tosses prey from the tip of its bill into its throat, called ballistic transport.[1]

Vocabulary

hornbill
A bird with a large, curved bill.
territory
An area an animal lives in and defends from others.
venomous
Able to inject poison by biting or stinging.
nestling
A baby bird that hasn't left the nest yet.
vulnerable
A conservation label meaning a species faces a high risk of dying out in the wild.

See it in person

Sources

  1. [1] Zoo Atlanta. “Southern Ground Hornbill.” https://zooatlanta.org/animal/southern-ground-hornbill/ (accessed 2026-10-02)
  2. [2] IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. “Bucorvus leadbeateri (Southern Ground-hornbill).” https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22682638/266675349 (accessed 2026-10-02)

Facts last checked 2026-10-02.

More Hornbills

An Abyssinian ground hornbill with black feathers, a curved bill and a red throat patch standing in tall grass.Abyssinian Ground HornbillBucorvus abyssinicusA big black hornbill of African savannas that walks the ground hunting snakes, lizards and small mammals. Also called the northern ground hornbill.