Famous birdwatcher, Jonathan Franzen once noted, 'If you could see every bird in the world, you'd see the whole world.' Seeing this quote, I thought to myself, since I have seen a hornbill, I would have probably seen the entire Malaysia!' Admittedly, my experience with our national bird is a short yet eye-opening one.

In my last entry, I wrote about my refreshing time in Niah National Park in Sarawak, Malaysia, that birds were hopping from one tree to another in the rain forest. It is such a coincidence that as this month's theme is Biological Diversity, I will elaborate on the birds I saw.

They are the Rhinoceros Hornbills. Instead of my sight, I heard them first. They made loud, rough sounds that resembled that of 2 tyres rubbing together. Looking up, I saw a pair of hornbills– probably about 50cm tall, dark shiny feathers with black-and-white striped tail and colourful beaks of yellow and orange that have the size of my forearms. As they expanded their majestic wings, spanning as wide as 5 feet, I was mesmerized with the way they flew across the canopy. With their beaks, they were picking and pecking little red fruits from the trees. That was my first time seeing these majestic birds in the wild and I was awestruck. But what followed became more fascinating. Instead of simply swallowing the fruits, they opened and closed their beak repeatedly, crushing the fruit in between, before cheekily jerking their head upward and backward to toss it into their throats. I later learned that this is due to their short tongue?s inability to roll the food in. At the moment, knowing that hornbills are usually monogamous, I assumed that they were a couple, just hanging out and having fun with their food.

Malaysians hold a special sentiment for hornbills, as they are our official national bird and the state bird of Sarawak. They are omnivorous and eat both fruits and insects. They live 25-35 years and are generally found in the primary rain forests in Southeast Asia. The hornbills nest in the bulk of very old trees in rainforest. After mating season, as monogamous couples, the females nest in the heart of the bulks of old trees, while the males leave to seek food. These birds are known for their slow reproduction rates, as a couple of hornbills nurse, at best, 1 offspring per year.

Worryingly, our hornbills are currently on a steep decline due to deforestation, hunting and poaching in Malaysia. It is crucial for us to understand that a well-protected bird indicates our environmental wellbeing. The health and activities of these birds point towards well-maintained forests as they disperse seeds and show a good balance of the ecosystem. Sarawak has listed hornbills to be 'Totally Protected Species' under the Wild Life Protection Ordinance (1998) to punish those who poach or hunt the hornbills. However, in Peninsular Malaysia, the Belom-Temengor National Park has recorded a fluactuating population graph of our hornbills, from 1000 in 2004 to 200 in 2005, 1500 in 2006 to 3000 in 2008, to less than 100 in 2009, elevating to about a little less than 1000 hornbills in 2010. It means that there is a great deal of what we do not understand about the behavioural patterns of our national birds, and more must be done to study their nesting and migration trends within the forest in order to devise a better way of protecting them. My personal wish is to have every baby hornbill able to peck through the woods of their nest, to see the first light of their lives and to spread their majestic wings in the horizon.

To remove all worries about copyright issue, I drew my own hornbill. Happy International Biodiversity Day to all my TUNZA readers and fellow ambassadors. Meanwhile, here's a list of fun facts about hornbills that I would like to share with you.

https://theculturetrip.com/asia/malaysia/articles/hornbill-11-facts-about-malaysias-national-bird/

Reference:

https://malaysia.wcs.org/

http://cleanmalaysia.com/2015/08/28/5-reasons-malaysias-wildlife-conservation-act-is-one-of-historys-most-important-wildlife-regulations/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ah7xB2sblg&t=26s

https://www.thestar.com.my/lifestyle/features/2012/05/01/tracking-hornbills/

http://www.theborneopost.com/2015/07/12/the-magnificent-hornbills-of-sarawak/

http://cleanmalaysia.com/2016/05/12/helmeted-hornbills-are-on-the-verge-of-extinction/

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/01/why-birds-matter/