 Unlike other red-billed hornbills, Southern red-billed hornbills do not raise their wings in display.It is found from Malawi and Zambia to southern Angola, northeastern Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, eastern Swaziland and northern South Africa (Transvaal and northern KZN province).It occurs in the upper Zambezi valley of Mozambique, but is mostly absent from the eastern lowlands.