NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Wreathed Hornbill
Rhyticeros undulatus (Shaw, 1812)
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
The wreathed hornbill (Rhyticeros undulatus) is an Old World tropical bird of the hornbill family Bucerotidae, also called bar-pouched wreathed hornbill due to its distinctive blue-black band on its lower throat sac. It is named after its characteristic long, curved bill that develops ridges, or wreaths, on the casque of the upper mandible in adults. Males are black with a rufous crown, a white upper breast and face, and a yellow featherless throat. Females are uniformly black with a blue throat and are slightly smaller than males. The wreathed hornbill ranges across the foothills and evergreen forests of Northeast India and Bhutan to Bangladesh, Southeast Asia and the Greater Sunda Islands. It is a frugivore and feeds mainly on large fruits, which it swallows whole leaving the seeds intact. This feeding behaviour plays an important ecological role for the long-distance seed dispersal in forest ecosystems. The wreathed hornbill is threatened by hunting, habitat fragmentation and deforestation.
Wikipedia contributors, Wreathed hornbill; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T06:37:05.659385+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Rhyticeros undulatus (Shaw, 1812)
- Name authority
- (Shaw, 1812)
- Common name
- Wreathed Hornbill
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Bucerotiformes
- Family
- Bucerotidae
- Genus
- Rhyticeros
- Extinction status
- Recorded extant
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classAves
- orderBucerotiformes
- familyBucerotidae
- genusRhyticeros Reichenbach, 1849
- speciesRhyticeros undulatus (Shaw, 1812)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Rhyticeros. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Narcondam HornbillRhyticeros narcondami Hume, 1873 | BucerotidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Blyth's HornbillRhyticeros plicatus (J. R. Forster, 1781) | BucerotidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Sumba HornbillRhyticeros everetti Rothschild, 1898 | BucerotidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Plain-pouched HornbillRhyticeros subruficollis (Blyth, 1843) | BucerotidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Rhyticeros undulatus aequabilis Sanft, 1960 Sanft, 1960 | synonym |
| Rhyticeros undulatus undulatus (Shaw, 1812) (Shaw, 1812) | synonym |
| Buceros undulatus Shaw, 1812 Shaw, 1812 | synonym |
| Aceros undulatus (Shaw, 1812) (Shaw, 1812) | synonym |
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=707790 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:4SWG8. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.