Bird brained
Sir: I was distressed to read Aidan Hartley’s account in Wild life (26 July) of how he dealt with what was presumably a ground hornbill pecking at the window of his new house — ‘Tappetytappetytappety BANG!’ These unique birds are listed as ‘vulnerable’ and are generally not found outside of large game reserves in southern Africa. They are incredibly slow co-operative breeders, which means that the dominant pair in a group only successfully fledges a chick an estimated every nine years (see Roberts Birds of Southern Africa as a reference). Surely Mr Hartley could have taken other measures to stop the bird from attacking his window — a film of non-reflective glass at the hornbill’s eye level might have done the trick.
Andrea Weiss
Cape Town, South Africa
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