Oriental Pied Hornbills

It was a rare sunny afternoon last Tuesday (March 28) in the past several weeks. Home alone by myself, I watched 5pm news on CNA and decided to have a walk at Singapore Botanic Garden before dinner. 

a Sunny afternoon at Botanic Garden

I walked out of the door around 5:35pm with my "big" camera.

The Sun was still high in the western sky, the sky was blue with patches of white clouds. I saw few people in the streets on the 400 meter walk to the garden's Tanglin gate.

Shortly I arrived at swan lake at the garden. It was as beautiful as always. The pair of swans were swimming at the other end of the lake. I passed a young mother with her little girl who were looking at fishes in the pond on the trail by the pond. It was pretty quiet there. … then I heard the unique sound of "kok-kok-kok", I could tell it was from oriental pied hornbills!! I took the camera out of the case.

A pair or three hornbills flew overhead, and quickly disappeared in the trees by the pond.

I marched on, and in less than a minute, they came into my sight again, three hornbills! One slightly larger than the other two, they rested on tree branches. The larger one stood aside by itself, the other two stood side by side and were very playful, biting or kissing through their big beaks :). After a couple minutes, the larger hornbill flew away, and the other two followed. I guess these are mother hornbill with her juveniles.

The larger hornbill

Looking up for other birds in the area, I saw them again two minutes later! I had a much clear view of them, one bigger in body size and beak, has a black patch under its eye on lower jaw, the other smaller in body and beak, and has a brown patch under its eye on the lower jaw. The larger one is a male, and the smaller one is a female.

They stood there, looking around. The male hornbill swiped its beak against the tree branch occasionally, like sharpening a knife. Super cute! 

the patches on the lower jaws are visible in this photo

They moved on to other trees, stood apart from each other, preening their feathers.

What a visual feast!

I left the swan lake and walked toward Keppel wetland a hundred meters north. I saw blue tailed bee eaters swooping in the air to catch insets. I heard kingfishers' calls and saw them diving at the pond at Keppel wetland from afar. Yellow vented bulbuls, pigeons, mynahs … were around - it was 6:40pm … birds were having their dinners. Time for me to have my dinner.

Just then I heard the hornbills' call in their fly, the family flew to the tree by the forest pavilion, where I stood. I looked up, three of them in the dense tree; I was very satisfied, and called it a day for bird watching.

Note

We saw oriental pied hornbills quite frequently at Singapore and recorded it twice before in the blog/

1. We saw hornbills in their tree house at Pasir Ris 

2. We saw another family of hornbills at Pulau Ubin

3. Rewrite of my blog by chatGPT: better than my writing, more concise, crisp, and more sophisticated words, but seems lacking the feel of eagerness, curiosity and emotion. gptzero.me correctly determined the following was entirely written by AI, and my blog was entirely written by human! openAI's AI text classifier on the other hand determined my blog and chatGPT rewrite are both unlikely AI generated

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Title: A Serendipitous Encounter with Oriental Pied Hornbills

It was a beautiful, rare sunny afternoon last Tuesday, a welcome respite from the past few weeks of gloomy weather. With nothing much to do, I decided to take a stroll at the Singapore Botanic Garden before dinner, armed with my trusty "big" camera.

As I made my way towards the garden's Tanglin gate, the sun was still high in the sky, casting a warm glow over the streets. There were only a few people around, and I relished the peace and quiet.

When I reached Swan Lake, I was greeted by the sight of a pair of swans gracefully swimming at the far end of the lake. As I walked along the trail, I heard a distinct "kok-kok-kok" sound and knew immediately that it was the call of the oriental pied hornbill. Excited, I quickly took my camera out of its case.

I was lucky enough to spot a family of hornbills consisting of a mother and two juveniles perched on a nearby tree branch. The larger hornbill, which I later learned was the male, stood apart from the other two, while the smaller female and juvenile were playfully nipping at each other's beaks. It was a heartwarming sight to behold, and I couldn't believe my luck at witnessing such a rare moment.

As I continued my walk towards Keppel Wetland, I saw other birds such as blue-tailed bee-eaters, kingfishers, yellow-vented bulbuls, pigeons, and mynahs going about their business, enjoying their dinner. It was a veritable birdwatcher's paradise.

Just as I was about to call it a day, I heard the hornbills' call once more, and to my delight, they flew to a tree right above me. I craned my neck to get a good look at them, marveling at their beauty and grace.

It was an unforgettable experience, a serendipitous encounter with nature's wonders. As I headed home for my own dinner, I felt grateful for the opportunity to witness such a magical moment and couldn't wait to share my story with others.