Malay Hornbill
| Malay Hornbill | ||||||||||||
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Male Malay Hornbill at London Zoo |
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| Anthracoceros malayanus | ||||||||||||
| ( Raffles , 1822) |
The Malay Hornbill ( Anthracoceros malayanus ), also spelled Malay Hornbill , is a Southeast Asian species of hornbill . Like all hornbills, the Malaysian hornbill is a cave breeder. The female walls herself up in the nest cavity and is fed by the male during the breeding season.
The stock is threatened primarily by habitat loss, which is why the black hornbill on the Red List of IUCN as Vulnerable (Endangered) is classified and cites is included in Annex II.
features
Malay hornbills are large hornbills with a body length of 60 to 65 centimeters. The males have a beak between 16.1 and 18.5 centimeters. In the females it is significantly smaller and reaches a length of 11.4 to 13.3 centimeters. Little data is available on the weight of this species of bird, but a single weighed male weighed over a kilogram.
The plumage is black except for the white tips of the outer tail feathers, some individuals also have a wide white to gray stripe above the eyes . The beak and helmet of the male are whitish to yellow without pattern, the beak and helmet of the female are smaller and black. The facial skin is black in the male, in the female around the eye and on the cheek patch is pink. In young animals the white tips of the tail are spotted black, the helmet is poorly developed and the beak is greenish-yellow. The skin around the face is orange, otherwise dirty yellow. The animals utter loud, rough, scratchy calls.
In the populations on Sumatra, the beaks and the beak ridges are larger than in the other birds of the species. The populations on Borneo have an average of 5.6 percent shorter wings than the populations on the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. It is therefore occasionally listed as a subspecies Anthracoceros malayanus diminutus . However, the classification as a subspecies is not generally recognized.
distribution and habitat
Malay hornbills occur in moist to swampy, predominantly evergreen, lowland rainforests on the Malay Peninsula , Borneo and Sumatra . They are also found on the islands of Bank, Belitung and Sengkep. On Borneo heights up to around 250 meters and on Sumatra up to around 500 meters are settled. On the mainland, the species reaches heights of up to 1500 meters and is occasionally found in coniferous forests in Laos . Compared to the oriental hornbill , which occurs in the same area , they are more likely to be found in the interior of the forests. However, they are also found in gallery forests along rivers and even colonize tidal swamps. They colonize secondary forests if they already have large trees or if only selective logging takes place in forests.
Way of life
The Malay Hornbill is a resident bird that occupies territory all year round. Typically in the center of this territory there is a dense stand of large trees and, in their immediate vicinity, tall climbing plants. Basically, the Malay Hornbill can be found here in the upper and middle canopy area. Its distribution is limited to primary forest, it looks for smaller stands of secondary forest, which borders rivers, to look for food there. They usually live in pairs, but the pair is occasionally accompanied by a young bird. Occasionally it forms smaller troops with conspecifics from neighboring territories, so that there are gatherings of five to six individuals. Malay hornbills that are not yet sexually mature may also form smaller groups. In individual cases, groups of up to 33 individuals have been observed.
The food consists mainly of fruits, which he prefers to look for in the dense tangle of climbing plants. He moves in it hopping and climbing. It breaks open the bark and fruit or seed pods with the help of its beak. Its diet includes the fruits of Aglaia and the Malay hornbills are considered to be the main spreaders of the seeds of this genus (so-called ornithochory ). He also eats the large berries and capsule fruits of the mahogany and nutmeg plants as well as the fruits of the titan arum . As with many hornbills, figs also play a major role in its diet. If it encounters other hornbill species on fruit-bearing trees, these are usually more assertive. Even different types of squirrels are able to prevail over the Malay hornbill.
The Malay Hornbill also consumes animal protein. Prey animals observed include beetles and butterflies. He has also been seen eating the eggs of the scarlet nigbird.
Reproduction
The reproductive behavior of the Malay hornbill has not yet been conclusively investigated. Basically, however, it is a monogamous bird that lives in pairs and raises its offspring alone. However, a not yet sexually mature Malaysian hornbill has also been observed to help a couple raise young so that it is possible that the Malaysian hornbill may under certain circumstances develop cooperative breeding behavior. In addition, its reproduction does not seem to be tied to any particular season.
The nesting cycle is estimated at 80 days, of which 30 days are spent on the brood and 50 days on the nestling period. The clutch consists of two to three eggs. As a rule, only one young bird is observed accompanying a parent bird, so that it is possible that only one young will ever grow from a clutch. However, it is also possible for a parent bird to look after a young bird at a time.
Like all hornbills, the hornbill is also a cave breeder. He uses natural tree hollows, but he has also been seen inspecting a powder woodpecker's hollow . As is typical for hornbills, the female walled up the nest cavity except for a narrow gap. The male feeds both the female sitting in the brood cavity and later the young birds in which food is carried in its beak. The male behaves very clandestinely near the brood cavity. It rarely calls during the entire breeding season and only approaches the nest cavity after carefully observing the surroundings. Fledglings are still fed by their parents for up to 6 months after they fledged. Malay hornbills that are not yet sexually mature remain in the territory of the parent birds for up to 18 months.
attitude
Malay hornbills are occasionally shown in zoological gardens. A Malay Hornbill kept in human care was observed when it was a little under a year old how it brooded the wall of the cave entrance.
Malay hornbills have reached an age of up to 21 years in captivity.
literature
- W. Grummt , H. Strehlow (Ed.): Zoo animal keeping birds. Verlag Harri Deutsch, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-8171-1636-2 .
- Alan Kemp: The Hornbills - Bucerotiformes. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1995, ISBN 0-19-857729-X .
Web links
- Anthracoceros malayanus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2011. Posted by: BirdLife International , the 2012th
- Call of the Malay Hornbill on Xeno-Canto
Individual evidence
- ↑ Anthracoceros malayanus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2011. Posted by: BirdLife International , 2012 ..
- ↑ a b Kemp: The Hornbills - Bucerotiformes. P. 173.
- ^ A b Craig Robson: New Holland field guide to the birds of South-East Asia . New Holland Publishers, 2005, ISBN 1-84330-746-4 , pp. 44 .
- ↑ Kemp: The Hornbills - Bucerotiformes. P. 172.
- ^ A b Morten Strange: A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Indonesia . 2nd Edition. Princeton University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-691-11495-1 , pp. 201 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g Kemp: The Hornbills - Bucerotiformes. P. 174.
- ↑ a b c Kemp: The Hornbills - Bucerotiformes. P. 175.