What is the Cassowary casque made of?
The Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius) is a large flightless bird with a brown, horn-like or helmet-like casque on the top of its head.
The casque measures 13-17 centimetres (5-7 inches) tall.
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The Abyssinian Ground Hornbill (Bucorvus abyssinicus) is a large terrestrial bird. It is also known as the Northern Ground Hornbill.
The Abyssinian Ground Hornbill has black feathers with white primary feathers. The male has a patch of blue featherless skin around its eyes and an inflatable patch of bare red skin on its neck and throat. Its beak is long and black with a reddish base. On top of its beak is a black hard structure called a casque. The female is similar to the male, but with dark blue bare skin. Both the male and the female have long eye feathers that look like eyelashes.
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The Northern Helmeted Curassow (Pauxi pauxi) is a large, endangered, terrestrial bird in the Cracidae family.
The Northern Helmeted Curassow is mostly black with a white tipped tail. It has green iridescent feathers on its back and chest. It has a whitish underbelly. It has a small head, red beak, and a grey casque (bony growth) on its forehead.
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The Visayan Hornbill (Penelopides penelopides panini) is a highly endangered bird in the Bucerotidae family of hornbills. It is a tarictic hornbill.
The male Visayan Hornbill has a creamy-white head and neck, a white upper chest, a reddish-brown lower chest, reddish-brown uppertail feathers, and a creamy-white tail with a broad black tip. Its beak and casque (bony growth on its head) are blackish. Its beak has yellowish ridges. It has orange-brown eyes and pinkish-white eye-rings. The female is black, and her eye-rings are blue.
The Southern Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius) is a large flightless bird in the Casuariidae family. It is also called the Double-Wattled Cassowary or the Australian Cassowary. It is a ratite, related to the emu, ostrich, kiwi, and the rhea. There is also a Northern Cassowary (Casuarius unappendiculatus).
The Southern Cassowary has stiff, bristly black feathers, a blue face and neck, red on the cape and two red wattles hanging down around its throat. It has a horn-like brown casque on the top of its head. Its feet have three toes with one long claw on each foot.
The Silvery-Cheeked Hornbill (Bycanistes brevis) is a large African bird with a huge beak.
The Silvery-Cheeked Hornbill has iridescent black feathers with a silvery-grey head, and silvery spots on its cheeks. It has a white rump, white lower back, and white tips on its tail feathers. It has a large cream-coloured casque (bony growth) on its beak. It has dark eyes, and females have red skin around their eyes.
The Black-and-White-Casqued Hornbill (Bycanistes subcylindricus) is also known as the Grey-Cheeked Hornbill. It is a large African bird.
The Black-and-White-Casqued Hornbill is black and white, with a black head and shoulders and white on its wings and underbelly. It has an extremely large casque (cream-coloured bony growth) on its large beak. Its beak is decurved (pointing downwards).
What is a casque?
Some birds have a casque.
A casque is a bony growth over the beak (bill) of some hornbill birds.
The casque has a sponge-like centre filled with air.
Photographer: Martina Nicolls
Martina Nicolls: SIMILAR BUT DIFFERENT IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM
The Southern Ground Hornbill (Bucorvus cafer) is a large bird with a heavy curved beak found in southern Africa, especially in central Kenya, Botswana, and South Africa.
The Southern Ground Hornbill has dull black feathers, a small rounded casque (bony growth) on its head, bright red skin around its eyes, and a pouch under its chin. It has long eyelashes.
It can grow to about one metre (44 inches) tall. It has short legs and long tails.
Its voice sounds like a lion’s roar.