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Last month, the chicks were hatched at the zoo in Baltimore, though the youngsters won’t be visible to the public for several weeks due to the species’ eating and feeding habits.
“That’s because, before they lay their eggs, the male and female Von der Decken’s mud up the entrance to the nest with the female inside, leaving only a small opening through which the male brings food for the female once they hatched the chicks,” zoo officials explained.
“When the chicks are large enough, the female will break herself out of the nest, and both parents mud the entrance to re-seal it so that the female can join the male in bringing food to the chicks,” they added.
Officials made note that currently, the zoo’s African Aviary is closed to the public as a biosecurity measure against spreading avian flu, which is highly contagious and easily transmissible.
“We first brought Von der Decken’s to the Maryland Zoo in 2012 and have had success with our breeding pair and the offspring of these striking, highly social birds,” Jen Kottyan, the zoo’s Curator of Birds said.
“They’re easy to spot with hooked beaks and white and black feathers. The female has a black beak while the male has a bright orange beak. They are all very agile flyers.”
Von der Decken’s hornbill is a small member of the hornbill family named after the German explorer Baron Karl Klaus Von der Decken, who described this bird in his writings about his explorations in Africa, according to officials.
The birds are typically found across eastern Africa from central and eastern Tanzania, throughout Kenya, and into southeastern Ethiopia and Somalia.
Officials said the birds prefer "the open bush and scrubby woodlands of dry savanna and arid steppe," while their diet consists mostly of snails, mice, nestling birds, lizards, tree frogs, seeds, fruit, berries, and insects.
At the zoo, they will be fed a combination of meat, fruit, vegetables, and bugs.
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