It has been four years and they have been thousands frames to capture bird photos in gigabytes of memory. After it all, one of the most interesting bird species of Baluran has been well captured. Rhinoceros Hornbill Buceros rhinoceros, maybe the largest arboreal bird in Greater Sundas, recaptured after more than a year missed in Baluran. Now, not only him but his nest as well. Worth it then I say it’s become the best day of my life. Finally.

Why? Because of its population is understandably small in Baluran as here is the eastern limit of its global range. Only two individuals in every records. And it looks like that the global population is small too then become a reason to IUCN to include him as Near Threatened status.

It’s a Kepuh tree, Sterculia foetida, where the nest was found. Kepuh is well known as a giant tree. With about two meters diameter in length and more than 40 meters high, it deserves to be a nest tree of the largest arboreal bird. But, still, I have no idea how they build their hole nest.

For three hours observation I got the preliminary conclusion that they are in courtship. No female already inside the hole. And the male looked like preparing the nest. One, two or three times he put something inside the hole then got perching to look around. Grab some pieces of branch then flew away to another close tree where the female watched. Yes, the male was trying to complete his duty to make sure the nest is ready for his new family.

Now, let’s wait for the next 1-2 weeks the we hope there will be a new birth of this beautiful species.