Bizkaia Maitea magazine

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Looking for the wild (VI)

The two-horned bird

Text and photos: Andoni Canela

In this sixth stage of the journey undertaken by Andoni Canela across the six continents on the planet (En busca de lo salvaje– Looking for the wild) we travel to the east of Thailand, home to the Great Hornbill, an unusual and impressive bird whose survival is increasingly threatened.

The rainy season has started and the Khao Yai forest is a concert of natural sounds from the early hours of the day. This Natural Park, a few hours from Bangkok (Thailand) is home to 3,000 species of plants, 300 bird species, 70 mammal species and more than 70 reptiles and amphibians. Insects are almost countless.

This Thai rainforest habitat is home to the Great Hornbill (Buceros bicornis), the protagonist of these pages. It owes its name to some sort of horns it has on the casque on top of its head, just over its huge orange and white beak, which is hollow inside. It is over one metre in height and has wide, powerful wings. The vividly contrasted colours of its plumage alternate black, white and yellow. Great hornbills live in Southeast Asia and in some parts of India, Nepal and Indonesia.

Deforestation and felling of tropical rainforests for wood extraction, or land clearing for crops are their main threat. Hornbills need virgin rainforests to obtain a great variety of fruits to eat throughout the year.

They also need large trees to nest and raise their chicks. In some places, the illegal trafficking of their feathers is still a big problem. Their horn is worth up to ten times more than elephant ivory in the Chinese illegal market.

The beaks of these birds have been used (and are still being used in some tribes) for medicinal purposes and also for carving into ornamental objects. Their feathers have been used to decorate clothing and headdresses in various tribal ceremonies from Nepal to Malaysia.

You have to be early enough to look for hornbills. This is because at dawn, even in near darkness, hornbills fly for food in the early hours of the morning. These are methodical and routine birds, and they follow the same route on a timing that is almost always the same or very similar.

Seeing a great hornbill flying over the jungle canopy for the first time is awesome. Hornbills beat their wings to keep their heavy body in the air until they find a tree full of fruits to land. Then, they hop from one branch to another in search of ripe figs. When they find one ripe enough, they swallow it. Hornbills are frugivorous birds, but sometimes they also eat reptiles, rodents and other smaller birds.

The specimen we are watching is a male; it is evident from the red colour of its eyes, unlike those of the female which are bluish white. Its eyes are framed by huge, round eyebrows. Scrutinising this hornbill through our binoculars, we discover one of the most beautiful birds in the world: its brightly coloured plumage is further enhanced by its huge beak and striking casque that gives it its name and adds a prehistoric look to it.

Another distinctive feature of these birds is their unmistakable call. It is a powerful “cackling” or “roaring” sound that can be heard from over a kilometre away. Great hornbills communicate with each other using these calls. The beating of their enormous wings produces another of their typical sounds, similar to that of a train engine.

While the great hornbills spotted in the trees are entertaining themselves eating fruits, a thumping sound can be heard in the forest. It is an elephant making its way among the trees. The large-tusked old pachyderm is also eating fruits from a tree. It is about 80 metres away. The animal is moving slowly and disappears into the thick forest in a few seconds. The same happens with the rest of the herd a few minutes later. It is amazing how easily and fast they hide in the vegetation, as if they were ghosts, despite their enormous size. In fact, it is very difficult to see Asian wild elephants. They are scarce and are under threat and near extinction in several countries. In Thailand and Laos there are only a few sites (Khao Yai is one of them) where wild elephants can be found. As happens with hornbills, deforestation, ivory trade and their illegal capture for domestic use have increasingly reduced the number of wild elephants.

Great hornbills are rare birds for their amazing and unique breeding behavior. The female hornbill seals herself inside a tree hole for egg-laying. She remains confined in the nest for over two months, first incubating her eggs, and then cares for her chicks during their first weeks of life. While inside the hole, she uses her own feces to cover the entrance, leaving only a small slit to allow contact with the outside part. Mother and chicks are safe from predators there. Then, she relies on the male to bring her food several times a day until the chicks are developed.

After a heavy storm, the forest is brimming with water and a fine mist tinges the evening with a kind of fairy-tale feeling. It is a few days now since the female great hornbill emerged from the nest, but the chicks remain inside. From now on, while the chicks are growing, both parents take turns to feed them through the small slit.

The great hornbill couple remain together for a long time and, in fact, these birds can live up to 50 years. If tropical rainforests manage to remain intact, and the trees that provide them with shelter and food are not destroyed, there will be young great hornbills for many decades.