''Penelopides'' is the genus of relatively small, primarily frugivorous

hornbill Hornbills (Bucerotidae) are a family (biology), family of bird found in tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia and Melanesia. They are characterized by a long, down-curved bill which is frequently brightly coloured and sometimes has a Casque (an ...

s restricted to forested areas of the Philippines. Their

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...

, tarictic hornbills, is an onomatopoetic reference to the main call of several of them. They have a ridged plate-like structure on the base of their mandible. All are sexually dimorphic: males of all species are whitish-buff and black, while females of all except the Mindoro hornbill are primarily black.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Penelopides'' was introduced in 1849 by the German naturalist

Ludwig Reichenbach Heinrich Gottlieb Ludwig Reichenbach (8 January 1793 – 17 March 1879) was a German botanist and ornithologist. It was he who first requested Leopold Blaschka to make a set of glass marine invertebrate models for scientific education and museu ...

in a plate of the hornbills. The type species was subsequently designated as the Visayan hornbill (''Penelopides panini'') by the English zoologist George Gray. The origin of Reichenbach's generic name is uncertain. It may be a combination of the Latin ''pene'' meaning "almost" or "nearly", the Ancient Greek ''lophos'' meaning "crest" and ''-oidēs'' "resembling". While the

taxonomic Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

history of the Sulawesi hornbill has been uneventful, the number of species in the

Philippine Archipelago The islands of the Philippines, also known as the Philippine Archipelago, comprises about 7,641 islands, of which only about 2,000 are inhabited.allopatric Allopatric speciation () – also referred to as geographic speciation, vicariant speciation, or its earlier name the dumbbell model – is a mode of speciation that occurs when biological populations become geographically isolated from ...

species, the Visayan (''P. panini''), Luzon (''P. manillae''), Mindanao (''P. affinis''), and Mindoro (''P. mindorensis''). Today most authorities accept this split, although some have recommended splitting the Samar (''P. samarensis'') from the Mindanao. The genus contains five species:

References

* Kemp, A. C. (2001). Family Bucerotidae (Hornbills). pp. 436–523 in: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., & Sargatal, J. eds. (2001). ''Handbook of the Birds of the World.'' Vol. 6. Mousebirds to Hornbills. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. Bird genera * Taxa named by Ludwig Reichenbach {{Coraciiformes-stub