Hornbills (Bucerotidae)

Oriental Pied Hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris) - HBW 6, p. 499

French: Calao pie German: Orienthornvogel Spanish: Cálao Cariblanco
Other common names: Pied(!)/Asian Pied/Northern Pied Hornbill; Malaysian Pied/Sunda Pied Hornbill (convexus)

Taxonomy: Buceros albirostris Shaw and Nodder, 1790, Chandernagore, India.
Forms a superspecies with A. coronatus and A. marchei. Was long confused with A. coronatus, with complex synonymy of both scientific and vernacular names; the two were considered conspecific, but now recognized as two distinct species that differ in size and in several aspects of morphology (including colour of bare throat skin) and behaviour, and which overlap in range without interbreeding. During period of confusion, present species was commonly referred to as A. malabaricus, but, although two years senior to albirostris, this name appears to be unidentifiable; within “A. malabaricus”, E birds were sometimes separated as race leucogaster, but this name now considered a junior synonym of albirostris. Race convexus sometimes considered a separate species, but alleged sympatry without hybridization is apparently not proven, and supposed difference in tail pattern not constant. Two subspecies recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

albirostris (Shaw & Nodder, 1790) - N India and S Nepal E to S China (Yunnan, SW Guangxi), and S to N Peninsular Malaysia, SW Cambodia and S Vietnam.
convexus (Temminck, 1831) - Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo, Java and Bali, including numerous smaller islands.