This record was submitted by Martin Kennewell on 05 Jan 2022. All user submissions will be reviewed by the Records Committee. Entries listed here may be edited for brevity and clarity while the original record is left unchanged.
This record was submitted to the Records Committee for review.
The Records Committee began deliberating on this record.
The Records Committee completed its review and finalised its verdict.
| Species | Great Hornbill Buceros bicornis |
|---|---|
| Record ID | 10118 |
| Date | 10 Oct 2017 |
| Location | Hindhede Nature Park |
| Count | 1 individual |
| Age | 2CY+ |
| Sex | male |
| Date added | 05 Jan 2022 |
| Background |
|---|
| A majority of the Records Committee voted that the individual is more likely to be an escaped bird until further evidence of this species' dispersal/visit to Singapore surface. Points discussed are summarised below.
For escape While being a large-sized frugivore, the Great Hornbill is so far known to have a relatively restricted home range of about 20km2. (Poonswad & Tsuji, 1994). Sightings of this species are not widespread in south Johor (see eBird; Wells 1999). Moreover, similarly sized (or smaller) Hornbills such as Wreathed Hornbill that have wider home ranges (Datta & Rawat, 2006; Naniwadekar, Mishra & Datta, 2015) that are regular in Johor are not reported in Singapore. This species is known to be in captivity locally (with two committee members detecting a bird as recently as 2021) and escapes have previously been reported. For wild An individual was seen at the same site in late 2016 (https://ebird.org/checklist/S38556850) and was not detected since. One bird then reappearing at the same site a year later suggests a returning bird that wandered from elsewhere (presumably Johor). The home range of this species could be wider than what is currently known, because the observation that the bird was absent for a full year suggests that it wandered away from Singapore and back (on the premise that this was a returning bird) . While the bird is known to be in captivity, owners of such a species would likely secure their pet properly. References Poonswad & Tsuji (1994) Datta & Rawat (2006) |
| Vote results | Cat A: 2, Cat E1: 6 |
|---|---|
| Verdict |
Accepted
/ Escapee
(Verifiable)
Placed in Cat E1 |
Bird Society of Singapore. (2022). Record 10118: Great Hornbill Buceros bicornis. Retrieved April 25, 2024, from https://records.singaporebirds.com/record/10118/.
