A bird species with a vast distribution range can be like someone who owns land the size of a country. They inhabit the paradoxical situation of owning all of it, and yet not “owning” much of it. They do not own it the way a footballer owns the turf. The way a model owns the ramp. Or even the way a child on unsteady feet owns a stone he has stubbed his toe against.
It is ownership without real possession — ownership unaccompanied by the tactual experience of an object that is being owned. The Indian grey hornbill ( Ocyceros birostris)
comes across as that kind of an owner — an absentee landlord in much of its fiefdom.
Vast sections of India are subsumed in the species’ distribution range. Noticeable exclusions include the western ghats, where it probably does not want to lock horns with the Malabar grey hornbill ( Ocyceros griseus ); sections of the Himalayas; and a part of Rajasthan, paricuarly where the Thar desert is found.
Though it may sound surprising, Chennai and surrounding districts are constituents of this species’ range. In recent months, it has shown itself as being intent on making this fact less surprising, having had a look-in at the arboreal sections of Adyar and Thiruvanmiyur and on the coast.
Last week, there was evidence that it is not just a look-in — more about it in a bit.
“From January, the Indian grey hornbill has been sighted along the coast with some sightings at IIT-M campus as well,” states Aravind, adding a remark about his May 4 sighting: “Until then, the bird was not seen so further down south. All the sightings were up to Thiruvanmiyur.”
Fortunately, on that day, Aravind, a Velachery resident, was wending his way back home, shunning a more direct and quicker route to his hearth, “after dropping off food at Kottivakkam for a friend down with COVID-19”.
At Akkarai, he disappeared into a road leading to the beach for a spot of birding, and emerged out of it richer with the experience of a rare sighting.
- The recent reports of Indian grey hornbill sightings from Chennai — by Geetha Jaikumar at Theosophical Society and AM Aravind at Akkarai — have an identical sub-text running through them, one marked by persistent and belligerent “caws”. It reveals the prospects for the Indian grey hornbill in urban spaces that are both hugely arboreal and heavily populated.
- In the 20 minutes that Aravind lingered at Akkarai and watched an Indian grey hornbill, which was largely perched on coconut trees, he noted how ferociously the greynecked ( corvus splendens ) — the honourable house crow — guarded its territory by heckling the hapless Indian grey hornbill. “The crows were constantly mobbing the Indian grey hornbill, some of them even dive-bombing the bird. Unable to take it, the hornbill flew further south, beyond Akkarai,” remarks Aravind, adding that the bird only returned within a few quick minutes, as it was driven by another set of unhappy house crows.
- In the tail-end of the video that Geetha took of the pair of Indian grey hornbills, one notices the birds’ bonding session on a broken coconut tree at Theosophical Society being brought to rude end by a murder of crows.
- Being man’s commensal, crows would be found in plentiful numbers in places marked by dense human populations. A bird species that is trying to expand its range into urban settings is likely to be up against the uproar of the Indian grey neck.
- With a heavy concentration of tall trees, many of them fruit-bearing, and less-disturbed in many parts, the Theosophical Society gardens may just be the right space for the Indian grey hornbill to start building its numbers within the metro.
- (‘Uncommon Resident’ discusses birds found in Chennai and surrouding districts as residents but are not commonly seen)
Though the second wave was raging on and he himself was on a self-imposed COVID-19 duty, while setting out for home Aravind remembered a pact he had made with himself — that he would carry his Canon 550D (mated to a 400mm lens) at all times, not just while he went birding.
Still, he could have missed freezing an image of the bird but for a piercing squeal it let out.
An exciting possibility
The is an even more exciting report — the most exciting till date — and it has emerged from Theosophical Society. Dated 11 July 2021, the report is about the sighting of a pair of Indian grey hornbills, which prompts the obvious question.
Geetha Jaikumar, who resides on the Theosophical Society campus, and is associated with the organisation’s archives section, narrates two sightings.
“I sighted the Indian grey hornbill for the first time on 24 June 2021 at the TS campus at around 5.45 p.m. or so when I was on my evening walk in the main campus. The light was poor and a big bird flew across the path and landed on a tall tree. And I was thrilled to discover that it was an Indian grey hornbill! I had only my mobile with me and attempted a record shot which I just about managed. I thought I saw a second bird as well but was not too sure as the light was fading and visibility was poor.”
She continues: “The second sighting was at around 6.30 a.m. on 11th July when the weather was grey and cloudy and again the lighting was poor. This time it was in the Orchard area of the TS where we have a lot of fruit trees and also fig trees. I saw a pair of Indian grey hornbills land on a broken coconut tree trunk and after a few minutes they were chased off by the crows. Again, I had no camera but only my mobile with me! I have been wondering whether this is a breeding pair? There have been no records of Indian grey hornbills breeding in Chennai and if they are doing so it would definitely be an amazing event!”
This sighting underscores a trait associated with the Indian grey hornbill — it prefers to hang out as a pair unless it is not old enough to bother about raising a stock of its own. In that case, it would gravitate towards a small flock.
Given this, sightings of a lone Indian grey hornbill was a bit of a mystery. Starting from 23 January 2021 when birder Lakshmi Arunachalam saw an Indian grey hornbill at the Adyar estuary, actually in a section of the Theosophical Society bordering on the estuary, all previously documented and reported sightings of the species from Chennai over the last seven months have been of a single bird.
The most recent sighting seems to suggest what is possibly the significant other was just out of sight.
Hornbills prefer tall trees, and the expansive gardens of the Society being abundantly endowed with them, the notion of breeding Indian grey hornbills does not sound far-fetched.
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