A couple of birdwatchers looking up into the trees at the Mangrove Boardwalk piqued my interest as I could not make out what they were intently pointing and looking at. A change of viewpoint soon highlighted a pair of backlit birds with distinctive bills...hornbills!
The pair were grooming themselves on top of a mangrove tree. The bird on the left occasionally groomed the bird on the right. The bird on the right occasionally spread out its wings as if to give them a good stretch and even seemed to twist its neck.... It was as if the bird was doing some warm up exercises in preparation for some strenuous activity...or perhaps some confinement. Perhaps this was a mating pair with the female getting ready to be holed up somewhere close by. The birds had disappeared when I next looked up.
Later, I had overheard a volunteer saying that the hornbills may have been introduced to the reserve from elsewhere in Singapore as part of a breeding/re-introduction project.
Read more about the hornbills here :
http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/vertebrates/birds/albirostris.htm
http://besgroup.talfrynature.com/index.php?s=Anthracoceros+albirostris
http://www.fortunecity.com/greenfield/ecolodge/58/oph/nesting.html
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