Southern ground hornbill – Ignacio Leal Orozco

Portrait of a southern ground hornbill male adult, Bucorvus leadbeateri. Digital realistic illustration. 2023

Unfortunately I was not able to see this interesting animal during my stay in South Africa, but I did not want to leave it out of my species collection because of the interest it aroused in me.
It is a large bird, found only in areas of East Africa from Kenya to South Africa, with a characteristic that makes it very vulnerable, namely that it breeds only every 6 years and has only one offspring, to which we must add that it requires large territories for each clan or group (4 to 8 individuals); in addition, it feeds by foraging on land, which makes the disappearance of spaces its greatest danger and its numbers are destined to continue to decline.