A friendly visitor returned and I was ready with my camera. Or I returned to it! But I think this was a juvenile or old friend. In a previous post about a month ago, I showed the beautiful red-billed Hornbill. This time around, I am again confronted by the red-billed Hornbill and I could not help but take more photographs of this stunning bird! But as I said, I think this is either a very young bird or an older one. Its beak is a lot shorter than the other ones, and its head feathers look a little bit scruffy. The funny thing is this one was a lot more receptive to being photographed. And it was a lot smaller than the other two (in the previous post). That said, he was just as beautiful.

The first two photographs are my favourite. It sources a little worm from the ground, throwing it back into its mouth. I was lucky to have caught it on photograph! Sometimes you are just at the right place at the right time!

In any case, I hope that you enjoy these photographs of this stunning bird. I am always stunned when I edit the photographs at their beauty. I wish I could hold one in my hands, as their feathers look so soft and beautiful. But I know this is still a wild animal and I should not do it.

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A Mesmerizing Stare

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Postscriptum, Welcoming Every Visit

The more you think about it, the crazier this little friend's existence gets. They build their nests in hollow tree trunks. The male closes the nest with mud with the female inside with only a small slit through which the male feeds the female and chicks. Their population numbers are stable and actually growing from what I understand. But with the crazy "lifestyle" or nesting ritual, needing trees, and needing those threes to not be cut down while the mother is inside, and with the mother and chicks relying on the father not to perish while they are inside the nest, it is basically a miracle that their numbers are growing.

Recently, there has been a video going viral of these birds and this elaborate nesting ritual, which I can obviously not find now. But it is nice to see that people spread some sort of awareness of their existence and their nesting ritual. The more people know, I hope, the less they will exhibit behaviour that might be destructive to these beautiful birds.

In any case, I hope that you enjoyed this birdy photography post about this stunning animal we find in our country. It is really amazing that we find them so close to our doorsteps!

For now, happy photographing, and keep well.

All of the writing in this post is my own, albeit inspired by my little bird friend. The photographs are also my own, taken with my Nikon D300 and Tamron 300mm zoom lens.