Western long-tailed hornbill

This article is about the African species. For the Asian species, see White-crowned hornbill.

White-crested hornbill
T. a. albocristatus at Central Park Zoo, USA
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Bucerotiformes
Family:	Bucerotidae
Subfamily:	Bucerotinae
Genus:	Horizocerus
Species:	H. albocristatus
Binomial name
Horizocerus albocristatus (Cassin, 1848)
Synonyms
Tockus albocristatus Berenicornis albocristatus Tropicranus albocristatus

The white-crested hornbill (Horizocerus albocristatus), also known as the long-tailed hornbill, is a species of hornbill (family Bucerotidae) found in humid forests of Central and West Africa.

Taxonomy

There are three subspecies, which differ primarily in the amount of white to their head and neck and the presence or absence of white tips to the wing-coverts:

• Horizocerus albocristatus albocristatus (Cassin, 1848) – Guinea to the Ivory Coast.
• Horizocerus albocristatus cassini (Finsch, 1903) – from Nigeria east to Uganda and south to Angola.
• Horizocerus albocristatus macrourus (Bonaparte, 1850) – Ivory Coast and Ghana.

Range

The white-crested hornbill has a large range in West Africa, occurring from southern Sierra Leone, east to Benin including Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, and Togo. It is frequent in parts of its range. Although its population is difficult to estimate, it is not thought to be threatened.

Gallery

• 
  Head of H. a. macrourus
• 
  At San Diego Zoo
• 
  At Central Park Zoo, USA