Feeding the Hornbills

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When I was preparing for my trip, I had a lot of choices for Pangkor Island. It's not big, but it's big enough that it's best to stay near what you're most interested in. I was interested in seeing the nightly hornbill feeding and planned accordingly.

I arrived at my guest house, checked in as quickly as I could and raced down the road. I was cutting it close, it was already 625 and the feeding started at 630pm. (To be fair, my gps had failed twice, I'd gotten lost somewhere in rural Malaysia where there's no 3G service, and then it decided to pour. I was rather pleased with myself when I managed to make it to the ferry pier in spite of all of this.) I shouldn't have worried, though, since the hornbills were only 100 meters away. And like all wild animals, they don't wear watches.

There was a small group of us ready with our cameras. The man who runs the guest house where they feed started getting the birds' attention, and then we saw them all. I was expecting about ten birds. There were closer to thirty. "Who wants to feed them first?" he asked. I laughed. Surely he was joking.

One girl volunteered. He showed her how to hold the banana up in the air. She did so nervously, and a hornbill swooped down and took it. After checking her hand she laughed. Obviously she was fine. She fed the birds about 5 banana slices and then it was someone else's turn.

I finally decided I wanted to try. (That's why I was there, right?) I fed several birds and only once or twice did they actually touch me--they're that precise at grabbing banana slices! It's quite nerve wracking at first, since the birds seem like they're flying at your head. But after a few tries you get used to it and just learn to relax and enjoy it.

After about half an hour we were all out of bananas and the birds were restless, many of them had left. I decided it was time for me to leave, too. And to go finally check out my guest house.

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Photos

Hornbills
These guys are hungry!

They're coming in closer.
Who is this strange being holding bananas?

Finally!
I'm a natural. Really. (Just kidding.)