Nest Predation by Oriental Pied Hornbills

Nest predation by Oriental Pied Hornbills Anthracoceros albirostris in urban Singapore

BirdingAsia Magazine

The research article, “Nest predation by Oriental Pied Hornbills Anthracoceros albirostris in urban Singapore” for BirdingAsia Magazine is a study by Nature Society (Singapore), Mandai Nature and National University of Singapore. Tim Plowden first made reference to nest predation by hornbills in urban Singapore in his article, “Hornbill Social Dust Bath” for Nature Watch magazine published in April 2019 . At this stage he was referring to anecdotes by local bird photographers and naturalists about the Pasir Ris hornbill flock’s nest raiding activity. In 2018 an Olive-backed Sunbird nest mysteriously disappeared from his apartment balcony near Pasir Ris Park. He suspected hornbills and when an oriole pair started to build a nest behind the apartment a unique opportunity presented itself to investigate. After Tim filmed the oriole nest predation attempts by the hornbills for his film, “The Circle of Life“, he was able to contribute nest predation observations to a research article on the subject.

Recently, there has been an increasing number of reported instances of Oriental Pied Hornbills depredating the nests of various bird species in Singapore and even raiding pet bird cages. We aim to synthesise information on nest predation by Oriental Pied Hornbills in Singapore to determine the ecological implications of predation behaviours on the hornbills and other bird species. To this end, we systematically reviewed the published and grey literature, including citizen science records deposited in online databases. We then analysed the number of nest predation records over time in relation to annual bird census datasets to assess the relationship between the hornbill’s population over time and predation frequency.