The red-knobbed hornbill is one of only four hornbill species that have crossed Wallace's Line.

The red-knobbed hornbill has a fleshy, electric-blue throat pouch that can be stuffed with a pound or more of figs for airlifting to its nest.

If Sulawesi, also known as Celebes, continues to lose forest at its current rate, Dr. Kinnaird warned, the red-knobbed hornbill's future is uncertain.

AN ecologist studying a spectacular fruit-eating bird, the red-knobbed hornbill, in Indonesia has found that it seems to play an important role in maintaining and regenerating the rain forest.

In their paper for The Auk, the scientists propose that the abundance of figs, combined with abundant tree cavities, explains "the extraordinary red-knobbed hornbill breeding density" in the Tangkoko reserve.

The red-knobbed hornbill, Aceros cassidix, is endemic to Sulawesi and adjacent islands and is among the largest of a group of some 53 hornbill species that are found from the African savannahs to the tropical forests of the Philippines.