Mindanao Tarictic Hornbill [HD]

This is a Mindanao Tarictic Hornbill, one of the 10 endemic hornbills of the Philippines. It favors forest and forest edge up to 1500 meters and is usually found in pairs or small family groups. Hornbills are amazing creatures - Tarictics are known to lay 3 eggs in tree cavities with the female individual completely enclosed in the cavity during incubation. So when a male Tarictic dies during the breeding season, the whole family is in danger since it is the male who will bring food for the female and its chicks. They are also efficient re-foresters of the mountains. They are excellent seed-dispersal agents: they are known to gather several fruits and store them in their crop and can transport them over cleared forest areas or plantations, from one forest patch to another, in the process spreading seeds more efficiently than rodents and primates. You want to save our forests? - Save our hornbills! They are our allies in keeping our rainforests healthy and diverse. Mindanao Tarictic Hornbill, Penelopides affinis September 2010, Mt. Kitanglad Range, Bukidnon, Mindanao, Philippines