{"id":47769,"date":"2016-09-25T08:40:14","date_gmt":"2016-09-25T00:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/besgroup.org\/?p=47769"},"modified":"2023-06-24T17:10:17","modified_gmt":"2023-06-24T09:10:17","slug":"oriental-pied-hornbill-locking-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/besgroup.org\/2016\/09\/25\/oriental-pied-hornbill-locking-bills\/","title":{"rendered":"Oriental Pied Hornbill locking bills"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cPasir Ris Park is possibly the best place to observe Oriental Pied Hornbills (Anthracoceros albirostris<\/em>) in Singapore now. At least 15 birds were counted at 2 different corners of Pasir Ris Park in mid June 2016. <\/p>\n

\"OPH<\/p>\n

\u201cOn 21 August, I found at least 7 of these magnificent hornbills foraging on top of a fruiting Angsana tree (Pterocarpus indicus<\/em>). They flew off above the canopy of the Angsana tree before I could approach nearer (below). <\/p>\n

\"OPH<\/p>\n

\u201cChasing after them led me to some tall slender trees where a few hornbills have perched and were probing deep into the foliage. Observed that they were plucking and eating fruits on these trees. A male holding a fruit harvested from the tree is attached (below). <\/p>\n

\"OPH<\/p>\n

\u201cFound out later that these trees are known as Mast Trees (Polyalthia longifolia<\/em>) (below). <\/p>\n

\"OPH<\/p>\n

\u201cTurning my attention to 2 females in an adjacent tree (below), \u2026 <\/p>\n

\"OPH<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026I was instantly rewarded when one of the birds leaped over to engage the other and bills were locked for a brief second (below). <\/p>\n

\"OPH<\/p>\n

\u201cFemale “A” that had leapt across and was in mid-air returned back to where it was before. <\/p>\n

\"OPH<\/p>\n

\u201cSeconds later, it took another leap and bills were again locked. <\/p>\n

\"OPH<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom one of the photos, Female “B” had its bill wide opened with the head of Female “A”, which was in mid-air, appearing to be within its wide opened gape. <\/p>\n

\"OPH<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, Female “A” was not flustered and it landed below Female “B”.<\/p>\n

\"OPH<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth birds were engaged for the next 10 seconds locking bills in various poses.<\/p>\n

\"OPH<\/p>\n

I must stress that the locking of bills by these females did not appear to be fights as there seemed to be no aggression at all. <\/p>\n

\"OPH<\/p>\n

\u201cI would think that this locking of bills is a form of social interaction as I have even encountered juvenile siblings similarly locking bills. <\/p>\n

\"OPH<\/p>\n

\u201cThis would suggest that the siblings were in social behaviour. <\/p>\n

\"OPH<\/p>\n

“Would appreciate any opinions.”<\/p>\n

Kwong Wai Chong<\/a><\/strong>
\nSingapore
\n31st August 2016<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cPasir Ris Park is possibly the best place to observe Oriental Pied Hornbills (Anthracoceros albirostris) in Singapore now. At least 15 birds were counted at 2 different corners of Pasir Ris Park in mid June 2016. \u201cOn 21 August, I found at least 7 of these magnificent hornbills foraging on top of a fruiting Angsana […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":47770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,88],"tags":[109],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/besgroup.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47769"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/besgroup.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/besgroup.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/besgroup.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/besgroup.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/besgroup.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/besgroup.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/besgroup.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/besgroup.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/besgroup.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}