Somehow, May has turned into safari month for us. This year, we started at Royal Madikwe, then visited Tswalu, and ended our trip in Cape Town. I began culling photos right after we got back (there were some amazing sightings everywhere), but garden work and other personal things have slowed me down.
That said, I did edit this one photo, I was really excited about it! When I took the shot, I already had some edits in mind and knew it would work well with my dark portraits series. I’m happy with how it looks now, though I might tweak it again later.
The Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill is affectionately nicknamed the ‘flying banana‘ due to its massive, curved yellow beak. Despite the bill’s size, it is surprisingly light because it is filled with a honeycomb-like structure of bone and air.
Here are some other interesting facts about this bird:
1. The bill is a precision tool. That bill is more than just eye-catching; the hornbill uses it like a pair of needle-nose pliers. The narrow tip plucks insects, seeds, and spiders off the ground or out of low vegetation, while serrated inner edges let it crush and break apart tougher items before swallowing.
2. The female seals herself inside the nest. After picking a nesting spot, the female seals herself in, closing the entrance with her own droppings until only a narrow slit remains. She stays inside to incubate the eggs for 24 to 25 days, while the male brings her food through the small opening. Later the chicks reseal the entrance themselves and stay inside for another 40-odd days as both parents feed them. It’s a fortress that keeps predators out almost entirely.
3. It hires a mongoose security team. Yellow-billed hornbills form a real working partnership with dwarf mongooses. They forage together: the mongooses scratch and dig through the ground, flushing out insects that the hornbills snap up, and in return the birds sound the alarm when a raptor appears, sending their mongoose buddies dashing for cover. The birds are so reliable that they sometimes arrive at the den in the morning and call down to wake their partners.
4. The chicks hatch on a staggered schedule. Because the female starts incubating before the whole clutch is laid, the eggs hatch days apart, leaving a brood of different sizes and ages. First-hatched chicks grow faster and are more likely to survive, but the mother’s presence in the sealed nest matters: she feeds bill-to-bill and shares food more evenly, easing competition so the younger, smaller nestlings have a better chance.
5. Those eyelashes are real. Look closely at a hornbill’s eye and you’ll see what appear to be long, dark lashes. They are not hair; they are actually special feathers that help shade the eye and keep out sun and dust while the bird searches for food.
Isn’t Nature amazing?
This is an older photo that I had processed earlier. I was looking for another photo, came across this one, and didn’t like that edit. At all. So, I started again, and I’m now ridiculously happy with it. We’ll see what happens in a couple of years. Will I still love it then?
This was taken in my garden; it’s so convenient to just step outside and find something to photograph almost straight away!
While hunting for the photo I mentioned earlier, I stumbled on another old picture I’d edited a couple of years ago. The moment I saw it, I knew I had to reprocess it. I didn’t like my old edit anymore, and I could already see in my head what it should look like.
I went ahead and edited it, but now I can’t decide which version I like best. It’s making me a little nuts! Usually, I have no trouble making decisions, so when I can’t choose, it really drives me crazy.
Which one do you prefer?
I took this photo of a Eurasian coot (Fulica atra) on a cold April morning near my house. I really liked watching it swim across the lake to its nest, carrying that big branch.
I wanted to take a break from sharing photos of Australia and Africa for a bit (sometimes you can have too much of a good thing), so I decided to focus on something closer to home.
📸 All photos were taken with Canon R5 Mark II & Canon RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM.
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