Strange Ways Of The Great Hornbill

Manas National Park

Hornbills scare me. Well it’s my wildlife nightmare to be caught in a closed car that’s been breached by a wild bird especially a Hornbill or an Ibis. The confusion and carnage would be epic if that happened. Huuhhh ! just the thought is so creepy. Add to that, these guys are pretty good fliers and those huge wings in a closed space? Thinking it gives me shivers. Look at his face in Pic : 3. Now tell me if I’d be let in anywhere with security if I had that for a face? Come on ! Guy’s literally wearing weapons of mass destruction for a face man.

Hornbills scare me like how a little boy may be scared of something, yet he can’t help himself when peeking out from behind the curtain at that very thing. They’re scary fascinating. No other creature announces its arrival quite like the Hornbill. He could be a while away but you can always tell from the loud flapping of a Hornbill’s wings that one’s about to reach or is around. People have compared the wing beats of Hornbills to the sound of small airplanes even and that’s mainly because of compression of air between their wings during flight. The structure of their broad, round wings tends to cause the compression of air between their wings. Add to that, they have those casques, the bony thing above the beak. Well, those casques have a tendency to trap and broadcast sounds. So basically dude’s got his own speaker system that broadcasts the sounds of his wing beats and his calls. Finally, they have pneumatized bones, meaning their bones have air cavities. This is what contributes to the loud wing beat in the first place. So, he’s actually got an amplifier hooked up to the speaker system. In a world when even the largest predators have evolved for stealth, this guy’s gone and done the opposite. That’s confidence. But then, why wouldn’t he? There’s not much else around in the skies in these parts to challenge him. Well, there wasn’t till man built tools probably.

I finally had a few chances to watch these guys last month in Manas. They have a tendency to perch and move their heads around nice and slow ( Pics : 10 - 12 ). Watching just that you’d think that guy’s slow cause his head must be heavy with the weight of that bone but fact is that the bone’s actually hollow and pretty light. Problem actually is that although it’s light he can’t see around the solid structure of his casque. So my guy has to actually perch, move his head around nice and slow to get a clear understanding of his surroundings and then decide on his next move.

Now, if living with those casques wasn’t making these guys strange enough, male Great Hornbills will often butt their heads together to settle mating and territorial disputes. Yeah, like bulls and antelope. The only difference, they just do it while flying at each other above the forest tree line with their speakers blaring amplified wingbeats and screaming war cries. What a show that must be, seriously!

Great Hornbill life is just simply alien for us. They get that signature yellow colour from oil that actually comes from their preen gland, near the base of the tail. These guys use the oil to groom themselves and waterproof their feathers. It’s this process of grooming that turns their beaks and casques yellow. Great Hornbill couples mate for life and after mating, the female will go and select a cavity in a tree or maybe go back to last year’s nest. Then, the male and female will plaster the cavity up with crap. The female will do the inside and the male the outside. A small hole remains for her to stick her weapon of mass destruction out or for him to get his in so that he can then feed her for upto 5 months at times. The female moults her feathers in this time and will stay in that cavity upto two weeks before the chicks fledge. The process of foraging for both of them gets so grueling for the male that many often die out of exhaustion. If the male dies, the female’s maternal instincts will not allow her to step out none the less and that usually means that the whole family will then perish. Pretty heartbreaking, huh?

Learning about the alien ways of the Great Hornbill thanks to my Manas visit makes me like them a lot. That doesn’t mean I’m not scared anymore though. Hey, I loved my Harley Davidson but I was scared of her all the way through till I sold her. The Great Hornbill is just different like the Hyena (Ref : Must Be Evil Cause It’s Different). They’re also unique and gorgeous to be honest. Excellent subjects and make for awesome images. Hey; not every creature has “King of the jungle” as its name. Even the Tiger can’t lay that claim. Well, I’m happy to admire The King from a distance cause there’s no way I need to be in close proximity of these guys, king or not.