Wildlife conservation film-maker and photographer, Tim Plowden, explores the return of the exceptional oriental pied hornbill.
Singapore has lengthy had a fame as one of many world’s greenest cities. Following independence from Malaysia almost 60 years in the past, efforts started to remodel this island nation right into a ‘garden city’.
Today, because the world seems to nature as an ally within the local weather disaster, it appears Singapore was means forward of its time. Among the tightly packed high-rise flats, workplace blocks and procuring malls, there are nature reserves, parks and buildings adorned with flowering bushes and shrubs.
Greenery is all over the place in Singapore, bringing with it an abundance of untamed creatures which have tailored to this very human panorama. Many are taken without any consideration, but a few of these city species show remarkably modern and clever behaviour that scientists are solely simply starting to grasp. One such instance is the oriental pied hornbill.
This giant hen, one among 62 hornbill species (and the one one in Singapore), is well recognised by its lengthy, downcurved invoice and distinctive headgear known as a casque. Unlike its cousins, which require giant areas of forest to outlive, the oriental pied hornbill is extremely adaptable, capable of carve out an existence in quite a lot of habitats, together with mangroves, coastal scrub and concrete settings.
The charismatic avian has had blended fortunes in Singapore, declining to extinction by the early 1900s on account of habitat loss and searching. But by 1994, it was able to stage a comeback. A pair started breeding on one among Singapore’s smaller islands, Pulau Ubin.
Until the Nineteen Seventies, Ubin was home to a thriving granite business, however its deserted quarries have since been reclaimed by nature, and at the moment are shrouded in secondary forest. As the vegetation returned, so did wildlife.
Scientists consider the intrepid hornbill pair got here from neighbouring Malaysia. It is simple to think about these giant birds flying throughout the slender channel between the 2 international locations, lower than a mile aside.
Hornbills nest in cavities made in giant bushes by different birds, similar to woodpeckers. After coming into her new abode, the feminine seals the cavity with a combination of saliva and dirt, leaving a small opening by means of which she will obtain meals equipped by the male.
It was this relatively explicit housing requirement that contributed to the species’ disappearance from Singapore from the late nineteenth century, as nesting bushes had been quickly misplaced to pepper and gambier plantations.
“Oriental pied hornbills occasionally visited Singapore from neighbouring countries, but couldn’t remain to breed as there was a shortage of big, old trees with natural cavities,” says Lim Liang Jim from the National Parks Board.
The breeding efforts of that returning pair got a serving to hand by members of the Singapore Hornbill Project, which launched in 2006. By then, the Ubin hornbill inhabitants had elevated steadily by itself, reaching 15 people, and 7 synthetic nest containers placed throughout the island supplied an additional enhance. All had been occupied by at the least one pair every, and greater than 50 nestlings have been recorded within the years since.
Nest containers had been additionally put up in different components of Singapore, and in 2008 the venture launched a pair of captive-bred hornbills into Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, which shelters one of many nation’s final remnants of major rainforest. An extra three releases had been unfold throughout different areas, together with Ubin, to diversify the gene pool.
While this help has aided the species’ restoration, it’s no shock that Singapore’s continued greening efforts have additionally benefitted the birds. “The planting of native trees has enhanced the habitat for oriental pied hornbills and enabled the species to thrive,” says Jim. “In larger landscapes, the oriental pied hornbill is typically found in disturbed forests and forest edges, as well as along the coasts, so parks and urban spaces are great habitat for them. Thanks to sustained efforts over the years, these birds are no longer a rare sight in Singapore.”
Ubin stays the species’ stronghold, with a inhabitants of roughly 50 birds, however its presence on the mainland has been rising. When I moved right into a neighbourhood beside a park on the east coast in 2017, I usually encountered flocks of greater than a dozen hornbills, and these characterful creatures grew to become a part of my each day life. Cycling alongside the common route between their daytime foraging haunts and roosting website, I’d typically be accompanied by flocks gliding above me on outstretched wings. In the playground with our daughter, the birds would generally emerge from the encircling cover to hitch within the enjoyable, chasing one another from the bushes to the swings and seesaws, the place they’d perch and fence utilizing their payments. They would even dust-bathe and preen within the sandpit, surrounded by captivated kids.
You invariably hear hornbills earlier than you see them, as their loud, cackling name carries for at the least a mile. The male is probably the most vocal, however the uproarious duet when a pair comes collectively is rivalled by few different birds.
Another evocative sound of the hornbill is the unmistakable beat of its wings because it flies overhead on its foraging rounds, gracefully swooping from tree to tree on the hunt for meals. The oriental pied hornbill is omnivorous, so its food plan is diversified. Fruit, bugs and lizards are the mainstay, with grubs and small geckos favorite snacks.
While the birds nonetheless make common forays to feeding grounds within the mangroves or areas of forest, this extremely adaptive species has additionally realized to benefit from the feeding alternatives that include life amongst people. Whether out of curiosity or opportunism, the birds can’t resist poking their heads inside litter bins, and I’ve even seen people feeding on rice omitted for feral dogs.
There can also be one other significantly coveted, much less accessible merchandise on the menu, which these clever birds have very intelligent methods of buying – one thing I witnessed for myself in 2019. That spring, a pair of black-naped orioles – a placing black-and-yellow hen – began to build a nest within the umbrella tree behind my condominium. Within every week, a male hornbill arrived on the scene, inspecting the abode whereas the orioles had been busy accumulating supplies.
He returned 4 days later, as if to verify on progress, and got here again once more, accompanied by a feminine, every week after that. Despite the numerous dimension distinction, the orioles chased the intruders away and proceeded to put their eggs.
Not to be outdone, the hornbills got here again every week later, their rank now boosted with one other male. Outnumbered and outwitted, the orioles might solely look on as the primary male hornbill extracted two eggs from the nest. Using the ideas of his mandibles as pincers in order to not harm his prize, he tossed every egg up within the air and caught it behind his throat, able to regurgitate to his personal fledglings.
What was most exceptional about this encounter was the way in which this male was capable of recruit members of his flock and coordinate a collection of predation makes an attempt. This behaviour exemplifies the intelligence of those ‘brainiacs of the jungle’, an asset from beginning. “Hornbill chicks spend a long time with their mothers inside the nest hole,” explains Anuj Jain from BirdLife International Asia. “Most animals that have a long gestation and fledging period are intelligent – in producing few progeny, parents are able to invest in care.”
Watch Tim Plowden’s movie, The Circle of Life, about nest predation by Oriental Pied Hornbills in Singapore.
But that’s not all. According to Jain, oriental pied hornbills additionally mature slowly and stay longer than most different birds. And whereas not as gregarious as parrots, they stay in teams and have nicely developed vocalisations to speak with one another, equipping them nicely for metropolis residing. Around 6pm every day, beside a housing property that borders a coastal park, rush-hour site visitors crawls throughout a bridge.
But it’s not simply folks returning home from a tough day’s work. Members of a hornbill flock have had a busy day, too, spending the morning foraging within the mangrove downriver, resting and preening in park bushes in the course of the sweltering warmth of noon, and feeding in bushes alongside the coast within the afternoon.
They collect on streetlamps lining the bridge earlier than gliding one after the other into their roost – a cover of tamarind bushes among the many human dwellings. The hornbills arrive because the aroma of aromatic spices fills the air, their exuberant chatter accompanying the sound of dinner cooking. As folks embark on train routines alongside the tree-lined river, above the cover, perched on high-rise balconies, a dozen hornbills play video games of chase and interlock their payments as they spiral downwards, as if having fun with one ultimate fling earlier than bedtime.
In the previous, they might look ahead to handouts of tropical fruit however such choices are not any extra – hen feeding on this neighbourhood was outlawed in 2020 and now carries fines of as much as S$5,000. There was a fear that handfeeding, even when out of concern for the hornbills’ diminished meals provide, might make the birds victims of their very own success. “People believed they were helping, or that feeding the birds is good karma,” says Jain, “but it would be dangerous for them to become over-habituated to humans. They are large birds with long, pointed beaks and could act aggressively if threatened.”
Now, when nesting exercise is noticed in bushes, the National Parks Board cordons off the world. It’s all about studying methods to coexist. I really feel optimistic about the way forward for these birds in Singapore, as they proceed to thrive of their metropolis environment. “The younger generation is standing up for nature conservation, far more than 10 or 20 years ago,” says Jain. “I hope these special birds are forever part of the cityscape.”
How Singapore is reworking its skyrises
Skyrise greenery refers back to the integration of crops and greenery into buildings and concrete constructions. It can take many kinds, together with rooftop gardens, inexperienced partitions, residing facades and atriums. Many cities, together with Singapore, are selling skyrise greenery to create inexperienced areas in dense city areas and to assist mitigate the city heat-island impact.
The Singapore authorities has applied insurance policies to encourage skyrise greenery, similar to providing tax breaks and monetary incentives to builders that incorporate greenery into their buildings. By creating inexperienced areas on buildings, cities can present habitat for birds, butterflies and different pollinators, which help biodiversity and enhance air high quality. Maintenance, although, is pricey. “We have to do more in terms of creating wilder landscapes that are native, easier to maintain and support a wider biodiversity,” says Anuj Jain of ChickenLife International Asia.
Want to seek out out extra?
Check out our knowledgeable information to hornbills, and browse the solutions to questions like do birds have knees? Why do they appear bizarre? and discover out what are the smallest birds on the earth: uncover 10 tiny avian wonders.
