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Welcome to another new week of Wild Facts.\u00a0 We are going to start the week off discovering an interesting bird.\u00a0 This is another animal that was recommended by my brother, Clayton.\u00a0 Enough of the idle chit chat, let’s head over to Africa to learn about the Abyssinian Ground-Hornbill.<\/p>\n

This large bird can be found hanging out in the grasslands and savannas of Africa, just north of the equator.\u00a0 There are several things that we will notice first about this unique bird.\u00a0 A few of their characteristics include the casque on top of their head, stubby legs, an inflatable throat pouch and of course incredibly long eyelashes.<\/p>\n

So where should we start? Well, I guess we can begin with the odd looking casque on the top of their head.\u00a0 This is believed to help with enhancing their vocalizations so all of their friends can hear them.\u00a0 The bare legs of this bird are perfect for walking and running throughout the grasslands of Africa.\u00a0 Let’s move onto the more interesting features of this particular hornbill.<\/p>\n

You will notice that this bird as a blue or red throat pouch, also called a wattle.\u00a0 This wattle is used in courtship with the males puffing it out to impress the ladies in the area.\u00a0 Interestingly enough, both males and females have this throat pouch but the women have a nice blue coloured wattle while the males are red coloured.\u00a0 At least this makes it easy for us to tell the males and females apart.<\/p>\n

I guess now is a good time to solve the mystery that was bugging my brother so much.\u00a0 What is the purpose of the long eyelashes? Well first of all, these eyelashes that most women would kill for are actually modified feathers.\u00a0 I doubt women would want feathers growing on their eyes.\u00a0 The purpose of these eyelashes are to protect the hornbill’s eyes from elements such as sand.\u00a0 I wonder how much mascara these birds go through in a year?<\/p>\n

I hope you all enjoyed today’s fact and stay tuned for another fun fact tomorrow!<\/p>\n

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Welcome to another new week of Wild Facts.\u00a0 We are going to start the week off discovering an interesting bird.\u00a0 This is another animal that was recommended by my brother, Clayton.\u00a0 Enough of the idle chit chat, let’s head over to Africa to learn about the Abyssinian Ground-Hornbill. This large bird can be found hanging out in the grasslands and savannas of Africa, just north of the equator.\u00a0 There are several things that we will notice first about this unique bird.\u00a0 A few of their characteristics include the casque on top of their head, stubby legs, an inflatable throat pouch <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4024],"tags":[787,348,226,381,46,789,788,4025],"yoast_head":"\n