Male Black Hornbill Anthracoceros malayanus feeding on ripe Ficus parietalis figs at Robert Ong’s Sepilok B&B, next to the Rainforest Discovery Centre, Sandakan, Sabah.
There are a number of fig trees in the gardens of the Sepilok B & B which fruit regularly attracting hordes of hornbills, green pigeons and bulbuls. The birds arrive early (before dawn) to feed and unless it is raining most of the ripe figs are gone by 8.00 am.
Female Pied Hornbill Anthacoceros albirostris at the Sepilok B & BAsian Glossy Starling Aplonis panayensis feeding on Ficus parietalis . Note that whilst the hornbills can swallow Ficus parietalis figs whole, smaller birds such as starlings and bulbuls have to wait until the figs become over-ripe before they can peck bits of soft flesh from the figs. This means that hornbills (long distance dispersers) get first pickings in comparison with latecomer bulbuls and starlings which are short distance dispersers. Thus Bornean figs have evolved so that the largest figs are dispersed by the longest distance dispersersRed-eyed Brown Bulbul Pycnonotus brunneus feeding on ripe Ficus parientalis figs in the Sepilok B&B gardens, Sandakan.Red-eyed Brown Bulbul Pycnonotus brunneus Yellow-vented Bulbul Pycnonotus goiavier
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