Easy place for Helmeted Hornbill (1 Viewer)

Hello,
I am looking for a place where Helmeted Hornbill is relatively easy to see and is fast to get from Singapore. Plan to visit August this year and would not like to spend time on transport, access etc. e.g. Danum.

Nowhere - it is now critically endangered, due to massive poaching.

https://www.birdlife.org/asia/projects/helmeted-hornbill

Ebird shows a number of places with close to 100% chance of sighting this year. They seem to fall in nature reserves where poaching is controlled. My question is: which of these places gives good chance of a visual sighting and is fast to get to?

If you want, contact me on PM. I promise not to tell any Chinese poacher.

Individual records for this species are blocked on ebird, so how are you getting data for sites with "close to 100% chance of sighting"? You can hear Helmeted Hornbill singing from about 2km away, but it is notoriously hard to actually see, so the majority of records will be heard-only birds.

Your best bet is possibly to contact somebody like Wilbur Goh and see if there are any stake-outs they will guide you to.

Better chance on Borneo, we saw them at the Danum Valley Field Centre and the Borneo Rainforest Lodge, I doubt much has changed there?

Both places mentioned have rivers so you have a much better chance of seeing one fly over than if you're on a forest track.

A question best not answered on a public forum, and though I can't give exact site details because of hunting pressure, I can give some background as to help you on where to look.

There is nowhere where the species is easy to see, unfortunately, that is easy access, certainly not from Singapore. Easy to hear, but to see can be very difficult as Duncan states. Close to 100% chance I struggle to believe!

One of my local patches not far from Kuala Lumpur usually has between 4-8 vocal birds but I rarely see any of them - try the hill forests around KL if you have time, I can offer suggestions via PM. Danum Valley, which has some level of protection is the one site where I would recommend. They have been shot out from nearly all of the sites in Sumatra I have previously encountered them, and much of Kalimantan also.

James

Thanks, i did not get luck in Danum and I would prefer a place easier to get to.

I can see hidden observations on observation, and all I can say (and also from experience last year in Taman Negara), they are still in the usual places (Danum, Taman Negara, Kinabatangan), but 90% of the observations are 'heard only'. So even if you are in a good area, they can be very, very hard to see, and even if you see them, most sightings are flying / flushed birds that are seen for some seconds through high, dense canopy.