Short Note

Egg-capping in the Southern Ground-Hornbill Bucorvus leadbeateri

Published in: Ostrich: Journal of African Ornithology
Volume 85 , issue 1 , 2014 , pages: 89–91

DOI: 10.2989/00306525.2014.895438

Author(s): Kathleen F Carstens DST/NRF Centre of Excellence at the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, South Africa

Keywords: Associated Private Nature Reserves , Bucorvus leadbeateri , egg-capping , Southern Ground-Hornbill

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Abstract

‘Egg-capping’ describes occurrences of the empty shell from a hatched egg slipping over an unhatched egg from the same clutch. It is a rare phenomenon, occurring typically in <2% of nests monitored. Here I report the first two observed cases of egg-capping in the endangered Southern Ground-Hornbill Bucorvus leadbeateri. In north-eastern South Africa, egg-capping occurred in 4.3% of nests that contained two eggs with one or more surviving to hatching.

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