Diet Composition and Food Preference of Malabar Pied Hornbill Anthracoceros coronatus in Pench Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh, India

Hornbills are large sized fruit eating birds important in forest ecosystems as they help in natural forest regeneration through seed dispersal. Thus they also help in forest ecosystem resilience. In the vast and iconic forests of Central India, Malabar Pied Hornbill Anthracoceros coronatus is perhaps the largest frugivore bird species and therefore plays a vital role in maintaining broadleaved forest ecosystems in the region. To better understand this role played by MPH, we studied its diet at Pench Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh during the non-breeding and breeding seasons during a span of two years, i.e., January 2021 to December 202It was found that MPH consumed fruits belonging to 22 plant species during the non-breeding season (August to February); and fruits belonging to 32 plant species were consumed during the breeding season (March to July). Overall, fruits belonging to 11 fig species and 26 non-fig plant species were taken in both seasons. Fruits belonging to the Moraceae family were the most preferred among all plant species in the hornbill diet. Eleven plant species belonged to Moraceae, two each to Euphorbiaceae and Anacardiaceae, and the rest to other families like the Annonaceae, Ebenaceae, Boraginaceae, etc. The diet also included animal matter including insects, crabs, scorpions, mollusks, frogs, geckos, lizards, birds, eggs, chicks, squirrels, bats and rats. These were supplied by male hornbills to nest inmates during breeding the season. Of the 11 fig species, Ficus benghalensis was the most preferred, followed by Ficus religiosa; and among non-fig plants, Putranjiva roxburghii was most consumed by A. coronatus, possibly because of its fruiting during both the breeding and non-breeding seasons. On average, male paid 10 visits to the nest per day. In the post-hatching period, the frequency of the supply of animal matter was found to increase with the maximum supply of insects and their larvae in the months of June and July.