Oriental Pied Hornbill

Timid, elusive, wary... all words not to be associated with the entertaining oriental pied hornbill found on Pangkor Laut.

I'd fond memories of this species from my first trip to Malaysia in 2001 - time then was spent on Langkawi and oriental pied hornbill, though present on the hotel grounds,were rather less approachable.

Spending most of the time in the jungle areas of the island there was a definate mid afternoon peak of numbers around the pool area of the resort ~ it didn't take me too long to discover that the bar staff were feeding these delightful birds, and were quite brave with inquisitive holiday-makers. It was tricky not to get an image with a bird eating "hornbill standard fare" - onion rings etc (can't say that the Robson guide mentions that in their dietry info!).

 

For me, the most amusing thing was their quiet "pondering" of their surroundings - maybe it's accentuated by their huge bill, or maybe it's their staring eyes (complete with huge eyelashes!)... but their ability to crane and arch their necks into weird positions was highly amusing...

Oriental pied hornbill were the most confident of the two species found on the island, their larger relatives kept to the high trees. More on them in another posting.

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