WOOP WOOP WOOP WOO-WOOP WOO-WOOP WOO-WOOP WOOP WOOP WOOP WAHAHAHAHAHAHA
The ape-like song of the Helmeted Hornbill has to be heard to be believed. It builds from single loud hoots into double notes, speeding up until the bird lets out a loud cackle!
It’s also an extraordinary-looking species, like one of Jim Henson’s more fantastical creations. Indeed, this is a ‘Big Bird’, standing over a metre high with a 50cm tail.
Witnessing a Helmeted Hornbill fly overhead is as dramatic as seeing one close up, its wings creating a whooshing rush of air as it glides over. It feels like you’re looking back in time at some prehistoric scene where the first dinosaurs have started to take flight.
On the top of this bird’s large, bright-yellow bill is the red, helmet-like casque that gives the Helmeted Hornbill its name. The birds have been seen using this (almost completely) solid structure in aerial battles, fighting over food or territories. The clashing of their casques as they head-butt in mid-air can be heard 100m away or more on the forest floor!
Casques, crime and crisis
The casque has always been a source of fascination for people. For over a thousand years, Helmeted Hornbills have been hunted in Borneo for their casques. These are sold primarily in China to be carved into jewellery and ornaments.
But, in the last decade, that trade has increased significantly, with extensive poaching by organised crime networks. In the year 2012/2013 it was estimated that 6,000 of the birds were killed. Since 2010, enforcement agencies have seized more than 2,500 casques, mostly at airports.
‘It feels like you’re looking back in time at some prehistoric scene where the first dinosaurs have started to take flight’
That’s completely unsustainable for a bird that breeds slowly. Helmeted Hornbills can live as long as 40 to 50 years. However, they’ll only raise one chick a year, and that process takes around five months!
During this time, the female will have sealed herself and her chick inside a hole high in a tree, with just a small opening through which the male will pass food. Males that are tending to nesting females are easy hunting targets because males are quite vocal at that time and stay close to the nest tree.
If the male is killed, the female can usually escape, but not if this happens while she’s moulting and unable to fly. If that happens, both she and the chick will die too.
Populations of Helmeted Hornbills have now seriously declined in Indonesia. We’re concerned that, as numbers become depleted there, people will start poaching them in some of the other places they’re found. These include the lowland forests of Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand.
Since 2015, this bird has been classified as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List due to the pressures of hunting, and the loss of the forests it depends on.
The Governments of the range countries are committed to saving this species but need (and are happy to work with) the support of BirdLife Partners and other conservation organisations to combat this clear example of organised crime assaulting some of the world’s rarest and most spectacular wildlife.
The RSPB and partners are working to protect Harapan Rainforest in Indonesia – a biodiversity hotspot for a variety of wildlife including Helmeted Hornbills.
We have decided not to include an audio clip for this species due to the threat posed by poachers. Making Helmeted Hornbill calls easily available online can make the situation worse as recordings may be used to lure the birds.
This is an edited version of an article originally published as part of Virtual Birdfair in 2020.
