Philip
My 1999 (4th edition) copy of Bertram E. Smythies
‘The Birds of Borneo’ features a painting of a Rhinoceros Hornbill on the cover
(by Commander A.M. Hughes). The tail is white with a broad black subterminal
band. Chapter 4, ‘ Birds and Men in Borneo’, written by Tom Harrisson,
has a section on the use of hornbill feathers for a variety of decorative
purposes, especially Helmeted and Rhinoceros Hornbills. I suspect the latter
might be your bird.
Here is the same painting on the cover of the first edition, you
can click the image to enlarge the illustration
http://www.andrewisles.com/AndrewIsles/search.cfm?UR=17464&search_stage=details&records_to_display=1
cheers
Steve
From: Philip Veerman
[
Sent: Monday, 9 March 2009 4:22 PM
To:
Subject: [canberrabirds] Borneo feather quiz
I went to
the festivities at Queanbeyan yesterday afternoon and in addition to
performances by
the Hungarian,
Pacific islanders, belly dancers, eagle dancers, 3 Colombian girls wearing big
hats with ostrich feathers and what looked like spangled shoelaces as their
only
below-waist clothing,
there was a
children’s dance
group from Borneo. They all had headdress on featuring a feather that I
asked about but the only answer I got was that it is from a large bird that
lives in Borneo. Without a bird to go on, my description is this: clearly a tail
feather, that is very similar to that of a Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo except for the
colour. It is all white with a broad subterminal black band, like the red on
the Red-tailed
Black-Cockatoo across
both vanes. Can anyone enlightened me? Here is a hint, I don’t know the answer. I don’t have any
books on birds from there. I suspect a hornbill or similar. I wouldn’t think a
raptor because
the feather wasn’t firm enough.
Philip
