The wrinkled hornbill is around 70 cm long, and has a very large bill that is fused to the skull.

It has mainly black plumage, a blue eye-ring, and a broadly white or rufous-tipped tail.

The bill of the male is yellow with a red base and casque, and a brownish basal half of the lower mandible.

They use holes found in trees for nests, and the female will plaster over the entrance with mud and droppings, leaving a nesting mother and her chicks only a small hole, too small for them to exit.

Heavy deforestation in their forest habitat has led them to be uplisted from near threatened to endangered on the IUCN Red List in 2018.