The structure on top of the bill is called a casque. The Hornbill uses this lightweight beak to gather its food, build its nests, seal the nest, and feed the chicks. In fact, that orange and red bill is what gave the bird its name. The Hornbill is most notable for its colourful bill which is huge. The birds are covered with black feathers except for the white tail that has a single black band. The Rhinoceros Hornbill is a large bird, 80 to 90 cm (31–35 in) long. Head hunting ended in the 20th century and most of the carvings are considered cultural icons. The carvings are still made today and they are still important for the various tribal communities. It called upon the spirit world to give courage to the warriors who went out headhunting. For the Iban, the figure is an essential part of a celebration called the Gawai Kenyalang. Historically, these carvings were associated with many of the tribes in Sarawak, Sabah, and Borneo. The Rhinoceros Hornbill is depicted in numerous designs in wood carving. The pattern in the textile below is called the ‘Feather of the Hornbill’. The threads are resist dyed before they are woven. The weavers of the area specialize in ikat. “Iban? Long House near Kuching” by rosskevin756 is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 There the hornbill was also used as a design for the totems on the poles supporting their roof as well as on many of the art of tattoos. To actually see these highly endangered birds you needed a guide to take you to the jungle areas where local tribes still live in their long houses. You could not move through the area around the harbour of Kuching without seeing ‘something’ decorated with the motif of a hornbill – from table cloths, batik wall hangings, phone cases, and old and not-so-old wood carvings. The Rhinoceros Hornbill is present also in Sabah as well as Borneo, in yellow. I became acquainted with these amazing birds during a trip to the Sarawak in East Malaysia many years ago. The one that I want to focus on today is the Rhinoceros Hornbill. The Zoo’s avian team looks forward to continuing our research and conservation efforts with this beautiful bird.There are over 50 different varieties of Hornbill. The Zoo is currently home to six rhinoceros hornbills, including the two you can see on exhibit along Bamboo Trail. In 2017, the Zoo hatched its 14 th and 15 th rhinoceros hornbill chicks. Having parent-reared chicks also increases the chances that the chicks themselves will be successful parents one day. Even though the Zoo had successfully hand raised chicks in the past, but it is more beneficial for the parents to rear the offspring themselves because it produces strong healthy chicks that are exposed to all hornbill behaviors. In 2010, the Zoo’s hornbills were able to successfully hatch and raise their own chick for the first time since their arrival at Nashville Zoo. By reducing this human exposure to the chick, the chick was able to be paired up with a female at another zoo. (Imprinting is when the young animal adopts characteristics of the surrogate parent making it difficult to reintroduce the chick back with its parents or other hornbills.) Keepers designed a "hornbill costume" that they wore when feeding the chicks to prevent the birds from imprinting on them. The Zoo’s keepers went to great lengths to avoid imprinting the young bird. This chick was the first in the nation to be successfully artificially incubated and hand raised. Nashville Zoo first bred rhinoceros hornbills in 2008. The barrel is modified with a small access door and a mounted infrared camera so that keepers can determine when eggs are laid and monitor the growth of the healthy chicks. At the Zoo, hornbill breeding is encouraged by offering a large wooden barrel on a raised platform to simulate a hollow tree trunk.
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