Meet the Bird Behind the Lashes

BY AWAKE! CORRESPONDENT IN SOUTH AFRICA

“CHANCES are you have never met us. We are birds, and most people know us as African ground hornbills.

“Apart from our striking looks, there are other interesting facts about us that we would like to share with you. For one thing, as our name suggests, we spend much of our time on the ground. In size we are somewhat similar to the turkey, and like the turkey, we really do not fly that much.

“With our distinctive, ponderous waddle, we wander the central and southeastern regions of Africa. If we should ever meet, you would not fail to recognize us because of our scarlet throat bags and eye patches and, of course, our long, stunning eyelashes!

“We ground hornbills are shy breeders—on average, raising one chick to fledgling every six years. During the breeding season, our males provide a good supply of dry leaves to line our nests, which are usually in hollow trees or rock cavities. Then the females carefully tend the eggs for a period of 40 days. Together with other members of our family group, we scurry to and fro, providing a steady supply of worms, grubs, and other delicacies to the ‘mother in waiting.’ We are all overjoyed when, three months after hatching, the new arrivals leave the nest to join the rest of our family unit.

“Our road to maturity is a slow one—it takes at least six years before we reach full adulthood. And it can take even longer for one of us to succeed in establishing his own family. Of course, the fact that we are long-lived (many of us live 30 years) gives us ample time to pass our genes on to other generations.

“As you can see, we are family oriented, with groups of no more than eight birds living and working together. Each family operates in an area of about 40 square miles [100 sq km] of African savannas, woodlands, and grasslands. In some parts of southern Africa, we have lost up to 70 percent of our habitat to agriculture and human habitation.

“We are very protective of our ranges and regularly patrol our borders. Our food—snakes, grubs, tortoises, and insects—is not to be shared, even with hornbills from other families. In our aggressiveness to ward off intruders, we sometimes make fools of ourselves. How? When we see our own reflection on a windowpane, we often charge into the window, mistaking the reflection for an intruder. Inevitably, the impact of the long hard bill shatters the window. Because of the many broken windows, some people have placed wire mesh over their windows, and we are very thankful for that!

“Tragically, there are deadly threats to worry about. Some people crowd us out of our habitat. Others shoot us with guns. Farmers often put out poisoned bait for jackals and other animals deemed undesirable. But how are we to know it is poisoned? Evidently for our protection, sometimes the farmers bury the poison. But since we normally dig for food with our long beaks, we dig our own graves, in a manner of speaking, when we dig up poisoned food.

“Some people are working hard to protect us from these dangers. We hope that we will not go the way of our fellow bird the dodo—into extinction. So whenever you happen to be in our area and hear our booming call, du-du-dududu du-du-dududu, do look us up. We will flutter our long lashes and welcome you into the realm of the ground hornbill.”