Hornbill

The Oriental Pied Hornbill is a species native to Singapore, that bred here during the 19th century, and that declined to the point of local extinction. The exact pattern of sightings is poorly documented, but individual birds must have been coming and going, from time to time right up to the 1960s. It was not until the 1990s that birds were seen regularly again in the mangroves of Pulau Ubin. They first nested around 1997, and have now built up a significant population.

Suspecting that one factor limiting their breeding success was the shortage of big trees with cavities to nest in, the team designed nest boxes that proved an instant success.

This allowed all sorts of research to be carried out that would otherwise have been very difficult - by installing cameras inside and outside the nest, to observe the behaviour of the male, female and newly hatched chicks, by installing a weighing platform to determine how much food the nest occupants received, and by installing devices to measure air temperature and composition inside the nest.

The spread of hornbills to the mainland has probably been facilitated by nest boxes, but the key benefit of nest boxes has been to acquire knowledge. This knowledge can be applied in conservation of the Oriental Pied Hornbill within Singapore, and throughout its Southeast Asian range. And the numbers may be small, but a population of 60 to 100 hornbills in a place the size of Singapore is not insignificant. More telling, it is a demonstration of what can be done to encourage fairly rapid increase of a large bird in an urban setting.

The female hornbill lays her eggs in a hole in a tree. Then, helped by her mate, she seals herself in, covering the entrance with droppings and mud. Only a small slit is left, through which the male gives her food. This keeps the nest safe from snakes until the chicks are grown enough to leave the nest, and learn how to fly.

During the nesting period, the male hornbill is the only source of food for his mate and chicks. He transfers the food through regurgitation and can regurgitate up to 60 fruits at one go.