Hornbill rescue in Taiping in early 2025

Tin ore was discovered in the Taiping area in 1848 and when that declined the adminstering Bristish changed the landscape and left a system of lakes at the foot of Maxwell Hill. Hundreds of locals do their morning exercise around these lakes.
Various wildlife call the area home. From December 2024 there were four oriental pied hornbill nests in the raintrees (Samanea saman) around the lakes. Hornbills require tree caviies to nest and these are generally in short supply. The female will be incarcerated in the mostly sealed cavity where she will lay eggs and feed the chicks for nearly 3 months. The female and chicks will be fed by the male through a narrow slit at the entrance.
I was present when the male hornbill inspected the nest cavity in December 2024 as a suitable place to raise a family and the nest was established soon after. Disaster occurred on a wet and windy night in mid-February (2025) when the tree toppled over.
The angle of the nest now made it impossible for the male to land near the cavity to feed the inhabitants. His stress calls alerted local nature lovers who contacted zoo authorities for assistance. I believe local nature photographer Winnie Ooi was largely responsible for this. The local authorities attached a wooden plank to the disoriented tree to enable the male hornbill to feed his family.
Since then the tree has been righted but not in the original alignment. Some brances have been removed to decrease the weight. It is propped up in several places by wooden blocks and scaffolding still remains. It awaits large metal supports seen with other rain trees.
The story did not end there. I have been in the location three times in April/May 2025 and each morning the hornbill pair came in to check on progress. On one occasion they had a juvenile with them which must have also survived the tree toppling over.
When the scaffolding is removed I hope the wooden plank is left in place as I suspect the pair will nest there again if the prosthetic perch remains. In essence this is a nice story where the love of the natural world makes this possible
Video of the male hornbill feeding the nest before the tree fell
Video of hornbill pair on the tree after repair

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