Hornbills Share a Meal
Posted at 10:16 am September 10, 2009 by Mike Grue
A southern ground hornbill
A few months ago, keepers started to feed the hornbills from a different location. This new feeding location gave us a greater ability to monitor the birds’ health and activities. Initially, the birds—although large and somewhat intimidating in appearance—were too nervous about the change in routine to come and visit their keepers. But as they got used to their new feeding station, we started to see some behavior that we hadn’t seen before!
At first, the male hornbill was the only one that would come close enough to eat food tossed to him by the keeper. Instead of eating it, though, he would grab the tossed food and run back up the hill with the meat in his bill. He would shortly return without his food. He repeated this process with every piece of meat. What was he doing with his dinner? Why run up to the top of the exhibit and not just eat where the keepers tossed the food? It turned out that he was sharing the food with his shy girlfriend at the top of the exhibit!
As she got more familiar with the routine, she would come down a little closer to the food. When the food was tossed, the male would run up to grab his food, strut up to his mate (showing off his impressive hunting abilities, no doubt), and stop short. The first time I saw this, I thought that maybe he had gotten tired of always giving up his choice meat. But instead of gobbling down his dinner, he just stood still. The female then lowered her head, raised her wings, and hopped toward him. When she got into range, she darted her bill out and plucked the meat from his bill. She was “begging” for her food! She was assuming a body posture that resembles the posture of young birds begging for food from their parents.
As the feeding regimen became common, we saw even more complex developments emerge from these two. Sometimes the female didn’t feel like begging for her food, and she would rush up and try to take the food from the male’s bill. Whenever she tried this without using a begging posture, the male would pull the food out of her reach at the last instant; the more stubborn she got, the more stubborn he would get.
Now, some days the female gets her food in a matter of seconds, while on other days the two will be in standoff mode for 15 minutes or longer! If you are near the snow leopards on Big Cat Trail in the mid afternoon, keep your eye out for these two birds politely sharing their meal…or not!
Mike Grue is a keeper at the San Diego Zoo.
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September 10th, 2009 at 11:46 am
How long will it be, I wonder, until the female ‘begs’ every time. I hope the male gets some food for himself! Wildlife always has surprises for us doesn’t it?
September 10th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Striking looking bird, almost a pelican like beak and I love the colors of them. I’ve honestly never seen one before and sounds like they have some ‘attitude’
Would love to see the standoff between them, I can just imagine it!
September 10th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Great blog post – its little things like this that continue to fascinate me about the animal world. Correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t this type of behavior in hornbills usually a precursor to breeding? I love the photo too, of the dark red wattle on the Southern Ground Hornbill – such a beautiful and unique looking animal.
September 10th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Thanks for the great blog, Mike. How old are the hornbills? Do you feed the them around the same time each day? I know many of us “regulars” would make a point of being there to watch these fascinating behaviors evolving. We still miss Delilah (?) who used to be on the Reptile Mesa and who would run around the enclosure as my grandkids ran. Is she still with the former Hunte Amphitheater group?
September 10th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
I have a question…does ever zoo keeper takes care of certain animals or specific, or their preference of animals ? and when they do take care of the animals do they always keep stats about them and write it up? I am wondering bcuz they are so much of you..
September 10th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
Jeremy,
Thanks for the great question! You are correct that this sharing is an important step for two hornbills that may potentially end up mating. In the wild, some female hornbills will wall themselves up in a cavity in a tree. They will close the hole they squeezed into and make a “wall” with a combination of their food, saliva, and (yes) their feces. They will leave a small hole for their mate to pass them food. The female will lay her eggs, incubate them, and then take care of the young without ever leaving her nest! This can mean many months cooped up in that small space. The male is responsible for bringing enough food for his mate and eventually their young when they hatch.
Now ground hornbills do not necessarily wall themselves in the same way their more arboreal cousins do, but the same principals do apply. This means that before a female ground hornbill will mate with a potential suitor, she has to make sure that he is willing to share his food! If he is of the stingy kind, it wouldn’t make much sense for her to invest her time into taking care of their eggs.
September 24th, 2009 at 11:26 am
Shirley,
We do tend to feed the Hornbills in the mid-afternoon. There isn’t a specific time we feed them, but we are usually in the area feeding them and other birds around 4:00 (give or take half an hour). Delilah is still at the zoo. She is still with the trainers who used to be at Hunte but they (trainers and hornbill) are currently located near the Rhinos.
September 24th, 2009 at 11:32 am
Hi Lid,
Many zoo keepers do have a preference for a certain type of animal. Some love to work with carnivors, maybe specializing with bears or big cats. Others like to work with small mammals like meerkats. My specialty–as you can probably guess–is birds. I don’t have a preference for any type of bird, but I have the most experience with waterfowl. Most of my coworkers have a lot more bird knowledge than I do so I’m trying to get some of them to share their knowledge and experiences in their own blog…I think some of them are too shy though!