Namibia: Strange Birds

Namibia has a number of different types of hornbills – some fairly common, but some a bit rarer.  This fellow below – a southern ground hornbill, was spotted casually walking through the forest toward the road we were on, with about 5-6 of his colleagues / family.  About the size of a small wild turkey, they were all absolutely silent and almost spooky as they steadily moved through the forest in search of food.  I didn’t realize until afterward that they were hornbills, as they are quite different from other types:

Then I also thought this was an interesting photo, spotted at a small tent camp:

I thought it was two hornbills of the same species – male and female – and it seemed sort of tragic because the one hornbill is caged, and the other is outside, frantically trying to get into the cage.  But it turns out that one is a southern red hornbill, and the other is a southern yellow hornbill – two different species.  The one inside the cage is there due to an injury, and we were horrified to discover that – for whatever reason – the one outside the cage is trying to kill it….

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