Video of Great Hornbills(Buceros bicornis)
So far it almost seems (from this blog at least) as though the only hornbill species that exists in this world so blue and green littered with bits of plastic and plenty of BP's petroleum, is the Oriental Pied(Anthracoceros albirostris) with a couple of Black hornbills(Anthracoceros malayanus) thrown in here and there for some variety. So we figured it's about time you met the rest of the Brady bunch.
Homo sapiens meet Buceros bicornis. Otherwise known as, the Great Hornbill. One of the most beautiful of hornbills. If you have been following this blog religiously like the good disciple that you are, you would realise that... wait a minute...these hornbills looks familiar! Well... not these particular hornbills exactly, but this species. That's because they played the lead role in a previous video posted under 'Snack on it #2'!
Now for the formal introduction. These large birds are about 95 to 105cm and are found in some parts of India, throughout Myanmar and most of "Indochina", Thailand, as well as the northern parts of Malaysia and Sumatra.. What is distinctive about this species is its concave topped casque! Take another look at the video if you don't believe us. It's almost as though someone took a hammer to the topside of the casque.
It also has a pretty distinctive reverberating (Woah! Big word there... say it with us: re-ver-ber-ating) call. It is this reverberating call that inspired it's Malayali name: Malamorakki, which means Mountain shaker. Interesting reverberating(the word is obviously misused here but... it's become our favourite word) name eh?
They are mainly frugivorous(fruits = yummy), as are most hornbills in beautiful Southeast Asia, though it does actively hunt to supplement its diet from time to time. This is particularly known to occur during breeding season.
Now, back to the video. What you have just witnessed courtesy of some unknown individual whose true identity has been kept secret by the mask that is the internet, is courtship behaviour. First, the male presents some food to the female- courtship feeding. Once she's well fed and happy, he figures it's only fair that he gets to father her babies after all that exhausting fetching of food from a tray provided by staff at the Zoo, so he tries to mount her. She thinks he ain't too bad, I'll give him access to my ovaries(or rather my eggs or he's going to keep bugging me. And... TADAA! They mated! Assuming all went well... around a third of a year later- baby bicornis should have arrived into the wonderful world of cages and gaping visitors to the zoo.
References
Kemp, A. (1995). The Hornbills. United States: Oxford University Press Inc., New York.
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