Hornbill Project

Yesterday attended at the Botanic Gardens the eye-opening Oriental Pied Hornbill Project at Pulau Ubin, our little rustic, passport-less getaway. My interest was piqued after two sightings from the jetty (they like the zinc roofs), the village elder's house and the early morning quest to see them in Sabah. Dr Geh Min was there at the talk too! She certainly looks better than in pics but the speakers were Dr Ng SC, Dr Mark and two nudergrads from NTU.

Anyway, the stars were the hornbills captured on video mating, laying eggs, helping the kids to fledge (which some did by jumping off the nest) and even cannibalising the littlest ones to feed the others! The captive ones in Jurong Bird Park and their wild cousins in Ubin were studied using never-used-in-S'pore before cameras perched inside on the ceiling of the nest and some others stationed outside too ....

Some interesting observations:
* the wild ones like Durian trees as nesting places

* but it doesn't stop them from using a ready-made one the researchers planted

* the female would let the male seal herself in the nesting hole for 3 months

* the sealing project takes one day.. even though I thought the nesting cavity, a vertical slit,
looks rather small for big birds like them. Material: soil and small rocks.

* the ideal size of the nest is approx 25cm (diameter) by 50cm (height) --> some head room
necessary for the huge casque

* females molt before laying eggs ....why? I dunno, maybe like how S'porean preggies like to cut
their hair short?

* not all eggs laid will be fertile

* not all eggs hatched will survive... in one brood of 4, 2 were cannibalised by the mum! She ate one after unsuccessfully feeding another young 'un.

* they don't lay all eggs at one go... interval of 2-4 days
* males diligently feed the female and fledglings after they were hatched. (SNAG!)

* diet include: olivebacked sunbird, lizard, young pinkneck green pigeon and even bats

* growth of babies measured by the size of the beak, since it's most easily viewed from the top

Check out Asian Geographic Issue 35, 2/06 for more details about the hornbills!