Kennie Pan’s close-up study of the Oriental Pied Hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris) provides an opportunity to examine the details of the hornbill’s head (above).

The black head has bluish-white facial markings – bare circumorbital (meaning around the eye) skin and bare throat patch. The eyes are dark red in the male and browner in the female (not too obvious in the image). A prominent feature is the long, sweeping eyelashes.

The pale yellow, down-curving bill has black markings, with the lower mandible having a black base. Although the large bill appears clumsy, it can be used with surprising dexterity, like delicately picking up a small fig, an insect or even a bird’s egg. At the same time it can be used as a pickaxe to knock off reasonably sized living creatures. The force of the mandibles can be strong indeed, to crush the skulls of small animals and seeds or to dig the ground to collect soil (left). The serrations along the edge of the mandibles allow for better grip of fruits or to grip the fruits to soften them before swallowing. The exceptionally length of the bill allows the hornbill to reach for food in areas that do not support the weight of its body.

At the top of the bill is a large casque, a structure unique to hornbills. It is a hollow structure, supported internally by bony ridges and rods, possibly with some opening to the mouth. This allows it to act as a resonating chamber, thus the loud nasal calls.

The casque here runs to slightly more than half the length of the bill. The male has a larger casque that tapers forward (above). In the female the casque is smaller and blunt at the tip (top). It similarly has black markings towards the front end.

The image on the right clearly shows the asymmetrical wing feathers - stiff feathers with a central shaft, a broad inner vane and a narrower outer vane. They form the predominant wind-catching part of the wing. Note that the dark feathers are white-tipped and free from wear and tear. Above the wing feathers are the rows of coverts, smaller feathers that overlap the flight feathers at their bases.

The Oriental Pied Hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris) normally nests in tree cavities high up where it is safe from most predators - see here: 1 and 2. Lately, nesting boxes have been used in Singapore to provide scarce tree cavities for breeding.

On 20th February 2010, The Star Online carried a report of a pair of the convexus race using an earthen jar on the ground as a nest. This was in the rural village of Kampong Sungei Panjang in the Malaysian state of Selangor. The female hornbill apparently entered the jar which was lying on its side, sealed herself in with mud, leaving a narrow slit to communicate with her mate outside.

The male hornbill regularly flew to the jar to feed the female inside. But before flying to the ground, he would perch on the branch of a nearby tree to monitor human presence. Only when no one was near the jar would he fly down to feed the female inside the jar.

Food brought to the female included a centipede and palm oil fruits. This continued for about three months when the chick/s fledged. Obviously the villagers have learnt to coexist with the hornbills, not disturbing the breeding pair and allowing the breeding to complete its cycle.

This is not the first time the hornbills have nested in such a jar. Enggan, newsletter of the Malaysian Nature Society Bird Group had published an account of such an unusual nesting a few years earlier.

Image courtesy of The Star Online. Thanks to Allan Teo for alerting BESG to the account.

GCSpyder’s study of the Oriental Pied Hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris) flying over Singapore’s Changi Village shows the wear and tear of the tail feather as well as the moulting of the flight feathers.

An undamaged feather has the barbs firmly attached one to another, resulting in a smooth, continuous surface of the vanes. Many of the tail feathers in the image show damage through wear and tear, resulting in gaps in the vanes.

Worn out feathers are replaced continuously, as seen in the flight feathers. The gaps around where the primary flight feathers meet with the secondary flight feathers in both wings are points of moulting. Here, the old feathers have been discarded and new ones are actively growing. This is symmetrical moulting, to provide balance while in flight. Asymmetrical moulting, where moulting occurs in one wing only, seen in the Brahminy Kite (Haliastur indus intermedius) that earlier had a fight and probably lost its feathers through fright moult, is unusual.

As flight feathers play important roles in flying, they are usually replaced one or two at a time.

We have an earlier post on moulting in the migrant Oriental Honey-buzzard (Pernis ptilorhyncus) and tail moulting in the Jerdon’s Baza (Aviceda jerdoni) that readers may be interested in.

This post is a cooperative effort between NaturePixels.org and BESG to bring the study of bird behaviour through photography to a wider audience.

On 26th January 2009, Mark G photographed three Oriental Pied Hornbills (Anthracoceros albirostris) feasting in a fig tree (Ficus benjamina) outside the Jurong Chinese Garden (above). The hornbills typically picked a fig at the tip of its bill, tossed it into the air to catch it in its mouth. This is how it deals with small figs. The hornbills remained for more than an hour and returned the next few days.

Earlier on 18th January, Kenneth Lumb similarly saw the three hornbills (above). Unlike Mark, Kenneth was surprised to encounter hornbills on mainland Singapore.

Yes, Oriental Pied Hornbills are relatively common in certain areas on mainland Singapore - see HERE. At the last count, there are more than 50 birds in Singapore, of which about 20 can be seen on the mainland, the rest on Pulau Ubin. Check out this LINK to read what is being done to increase the population of these large and impressive birds in Singapore.

Ever since my neighbour moved house, his lawn become overgrown somewhat. So regularly I had Scaly-breasted Munias (Lonchura punctulata) to observe as they visited once or twice daily to feast on the carpet grass (Axonopus compressus).

These birds arrived in a group of about half a dozen adults and juveniles. They spent up to half an hour feeding. Using the thin stems of the grass and other herbaceous weeds as support, they reached out to the fruiting stalks of the grass nearby with their bills to take in a few seeds at a time.

Note: In grasses the fruits are one-seeded, thus the seeds are actually fruits.