Avian drama grips Delhi’s Lodhi Garden

EReal morning time at Lodhi Garden, beneath an ageing semal shoetree, a unusual domestic help drama is unfolding between hornbills that do not quite belong together.There is the resident Indian grey hornbill family — a species common to Delhi — nesting inside a tree cavity. And there is the outsider: a lone female Oriental pied hornbill, a bird not typically found in the capital, arriving each day to feed the chicks inside as though they were her own.What began as an unusual sighting has turned stranger by the day — a tale of adoption, territorial conflict, and, by Saturday morning, apparent infanticide.“This is becoming a complete psycho-drama of sorts,” said birder Sheila Chhabra, who spent two consecutive mornings observing the birds alongside noted Delhi birder Nikhil Devasar.The Oriental pied hornbill is not native to Delhi. It is largely a Terai and Himalayan foothill species, with historical records noting only scattered sightings in the 1940s and early 1970s. After decades of silence, isolated reports began surfacing again after 2013. According to birder Sudhir Vyas, these birds may be long-lived escapees from captivity or wandering vagrants that have dispersed unusually far south into the Indo-Gangetic plains.Delhi now appears to have at least two — both believed to be females. One is frequently spotted around Jamia Millia Islamia; the other has transfixed birders at Lodhi Garden.On Friday morning, observers watched the female pied hornbill arrive repeatedly at the nest cavity, regurgitating berries and fruit into the narrow slit. Two beaks emerged from inside to accept the food. Moments later, the resident male grey hornbill would arrive and feed the chicks in turn. The coexistence was not always peaceful: during one feeding round, the pied hornbill aggressively chased the male grey hornbill around the tree before returning to the nest herself.“Has loneliness made the female pied go psycho?” Chhabra wrote in her field notes. “Has her mothering instinct become so strong that she has decided to steal someone else’s babies?”Then came Saturday, with more drama. Devasar would later sum it up in three words: “Love, deceit, murder.”At dawn, the female grey hornbill appeared to be repairing the nest wall from inside the cavity. An hour later, the pied hornbill returned — carrying what observers feared was a dead grey hornbill chick in her beak.“She attempted to stuff it into the opening,” Chhabra told HT. “The female grey rejected it vociferously.” Chhabra added that the gesture could, in its own way, reflect the pied hornbill’s affection — an offering of protein-rich food to the nesting mother.The pied hornbill flew off, pursued by kites, then returned once more with the carcass. Again the offering was rejected. At one point the dead chick fell into nearby bamboo as crows and kites swept overhead.By late morning, the resident male grey hornbill had resumed feeding the female inside the cavity. Three other grey hornbills gathered in the branches nearby.Devasar, who has photographed both birds — the one at Jamia and the one at Lodhi Garden — said they are clearly different individuals. “Both are females, but look different. Both have been seen for at least the last couple of months. We believe these are escapees,” he told HT.Nobody knows precisely what is unfolding above that semal tree — whether the pied hornbill is displaying confused maternal behaviour, attempting to integrate herself into the nesting cycle, or something more disturbing. More birders plan to visit on Sunday. The next episode awaits.