Saturday, June 23, 2018

African Openbill Stork

The African openbill stork was kind of a nice surprise that I got when I got home and started looking at pictures. I was photographing grey herons and when I looked at my photos I found the openbill storks nearby them. 
This openbill stork is almost hidden behind the grey stork. 
It is a dark stork with glossy green, brown and purple on the mantle and breast. It has black legs, grey eyes and a large brown bill. It gets its name because even when the bill is closed there is a gap between the upper and lower beak. It is found in large parts of Sub Saharan Africa, except most of the south from mid-Namibia, mid-Botswana and extreme north South Africa down. 
These two openbills are background to this grey heron. 
As both birds take off, the openbill is a blur while the grey heron catches the focus. 
It primarily eats aquatic snails and freshwater mussels. 
A blow-up of the photo of the openbill in the background. 

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