4 : Malabar Pied Hornbill

Malabar Pied Hornbill - Anthracoceros coronatus

This post was orginally made as number 4 at the beginning of May - for some reason it has moved up the list when I edited out a typo.

Back to the exotic again today. There are 54 species of Hornbill and I have only seen one of them. Like Bee-eaters they are spread across Africa and Southern Asia. This bird (and several others) was photographed again recently in Yala National Park in Sri Lanka while we were on a mini-safari during a family holiday.

These really are big birds and they need a big nesting hole. The threat across Asia to Hornbills is logging. Without the big old trees to nest in certain species are at risk. I read this morning that after the female lays her eggs they are walled in with mud and then the male brings food and feeds the female through a slit in the plug. Presumably this little fort protects the eggs, female and young from snakes and mongooses and other such predators and scavengers.

Around Yala these birds would gather in large roosts in certain trees - twenty or thirty at a time. I needed to remind myself that this was not the aviary in Regents Park Zoo but the real thing. I am not sure what purpose the nob or casque on the top of the bill has. It looks heavy but I presume it is fairly light like all bills.

- Anthracoceros coronatus
Yala National Park, Sri lanka - 15-18 April 2011