The Malabar grey hornbill is a large bird, but mid-sized for a hornbill, at 45 to 58 cm (18 to 23 in) in length. It has a 23 cm (9.1 in) tail and pale or yellowish to orange bill.Males have a reddish bill with a yellow tip and the females have a plain yellow bill with black at the base of the lower mandible and a black stripe along the culmen. They show a broad whitish superciliary band above the eye, running down to the neck. They fly with a strong flap and glide flight and hop around heavily on the outer branches of large fruiting trees. They have brown-grey wings, a white carpal patch and black primary flight feathers tipped with white. The Indian grey hornbill, which is found mainly on the adjoining plains, is easily told apart by its prominent casque, and in flight by the white trailing edge of the entire wing. These grey hornbill has a grey back and a cinnamon vent. The long tail is blackish with a white tip, and the underparts are grey with white streaks. The long curved bill has no casque. Immature birds have browner upperparts and a yellow bill. Young birds have a dull white or yellow iris.
The grey hornbill loud calls are distinctive and include "hysterical cackling", "laughing" and "screeching" calls.They are found mainly in dense forest habitats, the thinner dry forest habitat of the plains is typically occupied by the Indian grey hornbill. This hornbill is found in small groups mainly in habitats with good tree cover and being large frugivores, they are important as seed dispersal agents for many species of fruit bearing forest trees.They also feed on small vertebrates and in captivity they will readily take meat.
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