To understand the scope of this trade, researchers analyzed police and customs confiscation data and surveyed online ads from 2015 to 2025. They learned that this illegal commerce is widespread and involves every Indonesian hornbill species and some from Africa and the Philippines as well. Most birds were sold alive, suggesting they\u2019re bought as pets. Facebook was the preferred online marketplace.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe scale of the hornbill trade in Indonesia is probably greater now than I\u2019ve seen it in the past,\u201d said study author and wildlife trade researcher Chris Shepherd from the U.S.-based\u00a0Center for Biological Diversity. \u201cIt\u2019s becoming, perhaps, trendier to keep hornbills.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indonesia is infamous for its songbird trade, which has caused what scientists dubbed the \u201cAsian songbird crisis.\u201d Each year,\u00a0millions of songbirds, worth billions of dollars, are\u00a0caught in the wild\u00a0and sold in\u00a0bird markets. They\u2019re kept as pets or forced to\u00a0compete in singing competitions. The trade has emptied the forests and pushed many bird\u00a0species to near-extinction.<\/p>\n Like many songbirds, all hornbill species are protected under Indonesia\u2019s laws, making it illegal to hunt, keep, buy, sell or transport the birds. While the songbird trade is extensively studied, there\u2019s little data on hornbills. The new study sheds some light on this illicit activity.<\/p>\n Bird trade researcher Simon Bruslund from the\u00a0Copenhagen Zoo\u00a0said this study \u201cis very relevant\u201d to understanding the targeted trade in hornbills. \u201cThere seems to be a growing regional market for keeping nonnative hornbills in Asia, particularly with Philippine species in Indonesia and Indonesian species in India,\u201d said Bruslund, who wasn\u2019t an author on the study but helped identify the species sold online.<\/p>\n Seizure records revealed 126 incidents involving about 556 hornbills from 14 species, including the rufous hornbill (Buceros hydrocorax<\/em>), also known as the Philippine hornbill, which is endemic to that country. Nearly half of the seizures, involving some 222 birds, were traded alive, likely intended for the pet trade. Parts of dead birds are also popular, including beaks and heads.<\/p>\n \u201cThe growing demand for hornbill heads as a decoration is a little bit shocking and confusing,\u201d Shepherd said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen this in Africa suddenly skyrocket, and although it is not to the same scale in Southeast Asia, we are seeing more heads here.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2025, researchers\u00a0called for trade protections\u00a0for African forest hornbills after they found more than 2,000 dried heads imported into the U.S. between 1999 and 2024. These protections\u00a0were granted\u00a0later that year under CITES, the global convention to regulate the trade in threatened wild plants and animals. Legal global commerce requires permits; birds that were seized by officials and recorded in the study were illegally traded.<\/p>\n The critically endangered helmeted hornbill (Rhinoplax vigil<\/em>) topped the list of traded species, with 80 birds found in 13 incidents. Their casques are carved into decorative items, just like ivory. The unrelenting demand for casques, primarily from China, drove this unique bird from near-threatened status in 2015 to\u00a0critically endangered\u00a0just three years later.<\/p>\n The wreathed hornbill (Rhyticeros undulatus<\/em>), a\u00a0vulnerable\u00a0species found across Southeast and South Asia, was also in high demand: Officials found 72 of the birds in 26 incidents. Other widely traded species include the knobbed hornbill (Rhyticeros cassidix<\/em>) and rhinoceros hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros<\/em>).<\/p>\n About two-thirds of the seizures involved other wildlife: live birds of prey, cockatoos, gibbons, and body parts from pangolins, bears, tigers and snakes.<\/p>\n More than 100 people were prosecuted for hornbill trafficking, according to the study. They faced prison sentences from a month to four years, and fines ranging from 500,000 to 100 million rupiah ($27.50 to $5,500 at current exchange rates).<\/p>\n The study also shed light on trafficking routes. East Java and Jakarta, two of the country\u2019s main population centers, were the most prominent destinations for smuggled hornbills, while the largely forested island of Sulawesi was a major source. The international trade involved at least seven countries, with China being the most prominent destination.<\/p>\n This analysis is likely an underestimate, the researchers say, because seizures represent just a sliver of illegal commerce and the data excluded all cases that didn\u2019t go to court.<\/p>\n While investigating the online trade, the researchers recorded 231 posts advertising hornbills from Indonesia. They documented 560 birds belonging to 16 species for sale, including one from Africa; the wreathed hornbill was the most popular. One advertiser on\u00a0Tokopedia, Indonesia\u2019s largest online marketplace, claimed to have a stock of 1,000 hornbills. Another said they had 100.<\/p>\n Ninety percent of sellers posted on Facebook, a platform preferred by wildlife traffickers, according to numerous\u00a0reports\u00a0and\u00a0investigations. The highest online price was 42.5 million rupiah ($2,340) for the western long-tailed hornbill (Horizocerus albocristatus<\/em>), endemic to West Africa.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of the hornbill trade has gone online, especially on Facebook,\u201d Shepherd said. \u201cThere are Facebook groups dedicated to hornbill collectors and hornbill traders, and they have a lot of members.\u201d<\/p>\n These groups, he said, connect buyers and sellers \u2014 and encourage more buyers. \u201cYou might be interested in hornbills, but never in a million years think you\u2019re going to own one. And then you get into one of these groups and, well, they\u2019ll deliver to your house.\u201d<\/p>\n At least half of these ads, the study found, featured hornbill chicks or juveniles. The researchers say they\u2019re likely caught in the wild because breeding hornbills in captivity is extremely challenging.<\/p>\n In the wild, the female and her chick nest in a hollow tree cavity that\u2019s sheltered from the outside. The male bird regularly delivers food through a small slit. To snatch these birds, poachers \u201chave located the nest and climbed up and smashed through the barrier and taken the chicks out,\u201d Shepherd said.<\/p>\n Even when poachers get the chicks, raising them is a challenge. \u201cThe young birds often need intensive care,\u201d Bruslund from Copenhagen Zoo said, adding that actors from abroad likely commission poachers to capture rare hornbill species.<\/p>\n These birds play a vital ecological role as seed dispersers in the landscapes they inhabit. \u201cHornbills are incredibly important for reforestation \u2014 they eat big fruits and poop out big seeds,\u201d Shepherd said. \u201cThey regenerate the forest \u2026 in ways that other species can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n As their habitats vanish, trade is threatening the future of these heavy-beaked birds. \u201cHornbills occur in low densities and reproduce very slowly, and often only occur in lowland rainforests, which are under particular pressure,\u201d Bruslund said. Since most species raise just one chick a year, they can\u2019t easily bounce back from sharp population declines.<\/p>\n \u201cWith additional threats of trapping and hunting, populations are very vulnerable,\u201d Bruslund said.<\/p>\n Most Southeast Asian hornbills are protected under CITES, which requires permits for cross-border trade. But the African and Philippine species offered for sale online didn\u2019t appear to have any paperwork, the researchers said, which violates international laws. Commerce in all Indonesian species is outlawed by the country\u2019s regulations.<\/p>\n While some birds are stumbled upon by hunters, others are actively sought. \u201cHornbills are in the mix between opportunistic and targeted trade,\u201d Bruslund said. \u201cIt\u2019s the targeted trade which is being enabled by social media markets I am most worried about.\u201d<\/p>\n The researchers urged Indonesian authorities to investigate the numerous bird markets spread across the country, enforce national laws and strengthen regulations to address the illegal trade.<\/p>\n \u201cIndonesia really needs to close the bird markets, which are largely full of illegally sourced birds,\u201d Shepherd said. \u201cDealers in these markets are very often involved in trading hornbills, and these people need to be investigated. If they\u2019re found with hornbills, legal action has to be taken against them.\u201d<\/p>\n He also said corruption at airports may facilitate the trafficking of these noisy birds. \u201cMoving large animals like that generally relies on a healthy dose of corruption,\u201d Shepherd said. \u201cAirports have the best security systems you can imagine. How come you can take a live hornbill through them? [They] need to be investigated and monitored, and there needs to be a great increase in vigilance in airports.\u201d<\/p>\n Online platforms, including Facebook, have\u00a0policies\u00a0meant to prohibit buying or selling animals and their parts, but these are rarely enforced, as\u00a0evidenced\u00a0by numerous reports. While the platform has been aware of ongoing commerce in wildlife and threatened species, it has done little to address it, Shepherd said. Meanwhile, shutting down groups and accounts is only a minor \u201chassle\u201d for traffickers, he said, as they simply launch a new group or create a new account.<\/p>\n \u201cThe birds still are in somebody\u2019s hands, and if you shut down the Facebook groups, [traffickers] are going to move to WhatsApp or something else,\u201d Shepherd said.<\/p>\n However, he added, \u201cIf you arrest and put [them] in prison for selling hornbills illegally, that becomes more than a hassle and a real deterrent.\u201d<\/p>\n Gomez, L., Leupen, B. T. C., Rachmayuningtyas, B., Sari, D. R., & Shepherd, C. R. (2026). The illegal exploitation of hornbills in Indonesia with international trafficking links to Africa and Asia.\u00a0Wild<\/em>,\u00a03<\/em>(2), 19. doi:10.3390\/wild3020019<\/a><\/p>\n Lees, A. C., & Yuda, P. (2022). The Asian songbird crisis.\u00a0Current Biology<\/em>,\u00a032<\/em>(20), R1063-R1064. doi:10.1016\/j.cub.2022.08.066<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Rhinoceros](\"https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2026\/06\/09173529\/5-6-Rhinoceros-and-crested-hornbills.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
A worrying growth in trade, online and offline<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Chicks and young birds dominate online trade<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Conservationists call for actions<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Citations:<\/strong><\/h2>\n