The Lagen Hornbill Chronicles

In all my years of doing environment work, I never thought I would have the chance to take care of a baby Palawan Hornbill (Anthracoceros marchei). Lagen Island is an Eco-Sanctuary — it has the densest forest over limestone out of the 45 islands and islets of Bacuit Bay. This roughly means that this is the island where you’ll have the highest probability of seeing terrestrials, especially birds! So, it was only a matter of time until something like this would happen.

This story spans two (2) weeks so I won’t make this intro long and get on with it. Day 1 – June 19, 2015 At around 9am of June 19, I made my way up to Lagen’s restaurant to have breakfast. As I was about to grab a plate, someone suddenly rushes in and shouts “May baby kalaw silang nakita sa baba!” (They found a baby hornbill downstairs!). I immediately rushed to the scene and was met by this: I was in shock. Two adults (most likely the parents) were in the area and they were panicking. I immediately called Dr. JC Gonzales, a hornbill expert in the Philippines. His advice was if we could not bring it up to the original nest, then we will have to take care of it. We had an idea where the original nest is and it was around 50m high. There was no way the parents would be able to swoop down and lift it too so I decided to put it in a crate and bring it to my office.

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As was advised by Doc JC, I fed it every 2 hours (10mL per feeding schedule). By nighttime, I setup a heating lamp, placed a newspaper on top to shield it from too much light, and prayed hard for it to survive the night. Day 2 – June 20, 2015 Naturally, I was not able to get enough sleep since I was worried about the baby. I got up the next day and rushed downstairs. Once I opened the crate, it jumped out and hopped around my office. It even went under my desk! I called kuya Rey, our Environmental Enforcement Officer (EEO) to ask if anyone from our MRF can possibly scale a 50-m tree. He said he would ask around and go to the island ASAP. I asked him to bring a “fake nest” just in case. I then went outside to confirm if the nest was indeed in the area where we all thought it would be.

Suspected area.

Parent guarding the nest.

Nest view from the back.

While waiting for the MRF boys to arrive, we setup a special lecture for kids at the conference room. Everyone was advised to be quiet so that the baby will not get stressed. The kids were happy and excited. Even the parents had all sorts of questions about the Palawan hornbill and birds in general. This felt like one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for me so I told them as much as I could. I also discussed steps to take if they find an injured bird in the future. Baylo (short for “Baby Lolo” because he is a baby that looks like a lolo!) excited to get back to the wild

Group picture with the Venida and Derval kids

Showing the actual nest.

Unfortunately, no one can climb that high so we setup the fake nest instead.

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We left it alone and hoped that the parents will come back. While we were in a Be GREEN session at the conference room, we could hear the baby hornbill shouting. I had to rush out to see what was happening.

Instead of 2, four adults were in the area, all ready to take care of it! It was such an amazing thing to witness.

It got so excited that it fell out. It was heart wrenching! But then we saw that it was able to support itself with its short wings so it didn’t sustain any injuries. We then sealed the big circular hole and opened up the top a bit. Day 3 – June 21, 2015 I would’ve slept soundly that night – only if it wasn’t for the rain! We then immediately modified the nest.

Umbrella for waterproofing.

The net was so that it wouldn’t escape.

It must’ve fallen off about 6 times already but it good thing it was still ok! Days 4-10 Because of the latest modification, we didn’t have any accidents at all. The parents + 2 adults just kept coming to feed it.

They would feed it regularly, 3x a day: around 6-7am, 11-12nn, and 5-6pm. We’d know if it was feeding time by the sounds that it makes.

And when it is not being fed, we would see it cleaning itself…

…just like how its parents would!

Day 11 – June 29, 2015 On the 11^th day, Tay Dante came in and asked if I already let the hornbill out. Of course, I said no since another hornbill expert, Pavel Hospodarsky, advised that it should be kept in the fake nest for 3 more weeks (from the time we got it). He then dragged me out to show me this handsome fella on the roof of the clubhouse: Its parents were on nearby trees, screaming. It still couldn’t fly very high so we tried to catch it. Just as we were about to grab it, it flew very low towards the Garden Chapel. By afternoon, Mang Jun comes into the office with Baylo in hand. He said he heard the parents panicking and decided to check out what was happening. To his surprise, Baylo was just standing on the ground with a water monitor lizard (Varanus palawanensis) nearby! If it wasn’t for him, he would’ve been bayawak food! We brought the nest down, sealed all the big holes and hoisted it back up again.

The parents stopped screaming then. It was during that time when I realized the parents/adults seemed to understand that we meant no harm to Baylo. They saw us rescue their baby so many times that they’ve gotten used to our presence. They even seemed to know how to call out to ask for help! Day 13 – July 1, 2015 Another surprise came when kuya Carlito came looking for me with Baylo on his hand. Almost everyone saw it inside the nest that morning but apparently, it had slipped out again. It was found once again on the ground.

We knew we had to change its cage again and so we did.

As we were pulling it up, it seemed like it was going to escape again.

Escape attempt #2

But it realized it couldn’t fit.

We were quite apprehensive about how receptive the adults would be to the new, odd-looking nest. But as always, the adults were in the vicinity, ready to feed.

We watched the nest all day to see if the adults could successfully approach it. The new nest is much lighter so it swayed a lot more, which scared the adults whenever it would perch. So we brought it down again and tied the two sides down. It was still too shaky but then, we noticed that the adults were really determined that they took turns trying to figure out how to perch without making it sway so much. Finally, one adult thought of inching its way closer and closer, perching on branches close to it then finally hopping lightly towards the cage.

Day 14 – July 2, 2015 We knew we could not let another day pass without getting nest camera shots. Fellow birders and bird photographers Jason Apolonio and Alex Dalabajan were then called to do the setup. Of course, EEO Rey was also there to help!

It took us almost an hour to set everything up.

Jason even camouflaged the cameras!

But then, just as we were bringing the nest down, Baylo squeezed himself out of the small hole and flew to the nearby Guest Tree!

A parent followed and fed it at once. Then, the parent flew to another tree, urging Baylo to follow and he did. They were joined by another parent and both took turns feeding and showing Baylo where to fly off to. At first they were flying to short distances, then, farther and farther. They ended up at the forest behind Lagen’s station 5 where they were joined by 2 more adults.

They all took turns feeding it..

And also preening it

It was such a dramatic moment that we did not mind not being able to use the nest cameras at all! Seeing them happy together was such a good culmination to all those days of constant worrying and looking out for Baylo. It was flying much higher, faster, and stronger. It even knew how to dry its wings on its own.

Seeing it go from a small, helpless baby bird to a strong confident one was such an experience I could not believe I went through. Do I regret not being able to tag him? Get nest camera photos? Not being able to take a thousand more photos? Or to keep him as a resort pet? — all a big fat NO. His welfare comes first above my own desires. I know he is happy with his family now – and that makes me feel very happy and contented.

Lagen Island is, indeed, an eco-sanctuary, not just because of the natural features of the island but because of the people who make it so. The success of this story does not rely on me alone, but on everyone who constantly stood watch and acted without hesitation.

Special shoutout to the following: Dr. JC Gonzalez for the sound advice Pavel Hospodarsky for being “with me” all throughout the process Kuya Rey Reyes and the MRF boys (Batoy, Toto, Ferds, Richard and Aldrin) Eduardo “Kim” Balagosa II, for being the “father” LIR Garden dept boys Jun Malana, Rico Tejedor, Pat Cutamora, Carlito Magapan for the many rescues and countless hoisting up and down of the nest LIR Housekeeping dept headed by Joylen Arlalejo, for constantly watching out for it since it is right outside their office LIR RM Ms. Jennifer Zafra for the support and understanding My fellow EOs Maxine Fabroa and Elaine Tagudando for assisting me whenever they were in Lagen and of course, our mother Marigs Laririt for all the support Alex Dalabajan and Jason Apolonio for the nest camera setup and for capturing the last few moments we had with Baylo And all other staff in Lagen who never failed to simply look up to check on Baylo whenever they passed by the fake nest.

Jamie is a graduate of BS Psychology from the University of the Philippines-Diliman. Upon graduation, she knew that a normal desk job was not for her and through a series of very fortunate events, ended up working as the Environmental Officer for Lagen Island Resort. In 2014, she took a break to do pro-bono consulting and learn more about wildlife conservation, particularly with wild birds and marine turtles. She honed her birding skills as an active member of the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines, served as the project manager for the pilot project of Pawikan Watchers in San Juan, La Union and became a consultant for Morong, Bataan’s Bantay Pawikan conservation group. Before taking back her role as Lagen’s EO, she packed her bags and permanently moved to El Nido, with the plan of strengthening the use of community-based sustainable tourism as a tool for active biodiversity conservation.