Oriental Pied Hornbill: My Favourite Bird is Back in Town

There was a time when their cries would be my alarm clock to get up in the morning. There was also a time when getting up in the morning excited me — the rush to grab my gear, the uncertainty of the day’s catch. If you’ve just recently followed my blog updates, you wouldn’t have figured me to have an interest in birds. Then one day, they kinda disappeared from the my air space and I blamed the lumbering of their favourite control tower to be the reason. I was so infuriated but at the same time glad no hornbills were harmed in the destructive process.

Shortly after I published this post in the morning, I left for a series of meetings in the Brunei capital only to receive an interesting email when I got home. Turns out that this little fella is called Billy named by a University of Brunei Darussalam student who researched hornbill behavior in Panaga 10 years ago.

“YESSSSS!!!!!! the abnormal (unique) casque is unmistakable. It’s amazing. he is still alive n well after 10 years! he looks good n healthy.” — Gregory T.

When this hornbill isn't making noise, it's tidying and cleaning its feathers with its beak (also called preening) perched on a neighbour's antenna. Love this composition backdropped against puffy clouds.

The notch on the bird's casque is unique according to Gregory who is certain this is the same hornbill he had researched a decade back.This picture is also on Facebook, click on image to view other comments on Facebook

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Hornbills of Brunei | An Outing Extraordinaire: Hornbill in Flight | The Other Flights on the Golf Course | A Wild Side of Seria | When Birds Get Territorial | Up Close and Personal with the Oriental Pied Hornbill | Hornbill Ushering Monday Blues

A SERIA SUNRISE. THE MORNING AFTER.

After an entire day of shooting from an Air Force Bell 212 helicopter yesterday plus slightly over an hour’s commute back  home in Seria, I turned in earlier than usual. I had also run out of Nescafe Gold so there in the absence of stimulants I decided not to fight fatigue and gave in. But before that, I mustered enough energy head out for a light Japanese dinner with my wife.

Check out the egrets formation over  the lake below—to soar higher than the birds was quite simply divine—I had less than 10 seconds window to take this shot and it was really the hardest ten seconds of decision making I’ve had to make realizing that if I made the wrong one, I might not have a second chance so I took it anyway with the 24-70mm! I wish I had a second 5DII with the 70-200mm mounted.

Thing is this, I normally have on an average about 6 hours of sleep so having an earlier-than-usual night meant I got up earlier than usual too. But that’s not the reason I captured this beautiful dramatic sunrise—the sun had just risen half way and in a few minutes, the scene would be completely different.

It used to be that I fancied the hornbills more than the egrets because of their rarity and relatively small in numbers. But lately, that changed when I began noticing interesting flight patterns of the heron or Burong Apuh as they’re known locally and began taking an interest in their behaviour—which is rather unpredictable.

In my last post When Birds Get Territorial, there were birds in my neighbourhood that were obviously not in good terms with one another and I now know why—green cicadas which are smaller than the black ones and I guess being smaller makes them easier to peck at.

These mean looking black cicadas are a common sight and if the birds favoured them along with the green ones, there wouldn’t be any to photograph knowing how sharp their eyes are when it comes to food especially the inanimate ones like sitting duck.

WHEN BIRDS GET TERRITORIAL

If you’re a regular visitor here, you’ll have known the sort of breathtaking mornings I get to enjoy  from my kitchen balcony everyday. But no two mornings are the same and even though the big bright light rises in the same direction each day, the combination of cloud formation, objects in the sky which are usually identifiable ones at this time of the day such as migratory birds flying in unpredictable formation are what makes certain mornings more interesting. If you’ve never been to this area before (Latitude: N4.6132º Longitude: E114.3614º) and have formed an impression from looking at these pictures, I’ll have you know that I don’t wake up with a French window that overlooks a National Geographic horizon nor do I wake up to the smell of freshly ground double-shot Cappuccino either—but if you do, you’ve probably watched too many movies.

Would you believe if I told you I shot these with my 5DII and 70-200mm lens? Yup, there were this near and in fact hover over the roof tops repeatedly and on many occasions made abrupt swoops in the nearby forest. Why they do this I have no idea but they seem to do so in an orchestrated manner and it isn’t as though one of them has a whistle or that they actually indicate to the other egrets—really interesting to watch. I’ve also come to the conclusion that the 5DII’s AI SERVO has one amazing continuous tracking ability that rivals the accuracy of its EOS 1 series sibling.

What excited me this morning wasn’t the egrets flying over my house but rather something I’ve waited for a long while and hence the appropriateness of the title. The last time this happened, it was several months ago when I  saw it for the first time here. There is a particular species of bird that do not like the hornbills at all and in spite of their much smaller size, they are not afraid to get territorial and defend their air space.

As the hornbill took off looking for food, the fearless one decided to keep an eye …

… and did everything it could to get noticed but to no avail. The hornbill was looking for food and its determination remained unperturbed by what’s going on in the nearby TV antenna.

The little one kept its wings spread out the whole time in protest and disapproval (is this a double negative?) of the enemy.

↓ I don’t know if you would consider this a money shot but it’s hard to imagine the risks I took to get this. I’ve had to out stretch the body off the balcony (my mom who was watering her plants looked up and was really concerned when she reminded me that I wasn’t born with gymnastic abilities).

The female hornbill at the nest would be pleased with this catch. It’s never a good idea to catch a flight overseas and return home empty handed if you know what I mean. Here, a male hornbill seen with a wasabi-coloured Cicada (I could have said green coloured but I guess you get the hint, I’ve not had Japanese food for a while now).

The pursuit continued … until it was out of sight. It has been an interesting 30 minutes or so of my morning.