DSCN8629_1 - Bird on a bird feeder

Check out these wild birds images:

DSCN8629_1 – Bird on a bird feeder


Image by bterrycompton
– Bird on a bird feeder

Snail catcher


Image by Pandiyan
Asian Openbilled Stork
Anastomus oscitans

This greyish looking bird is non-breeding. In breeding times the grey changes to white. It is an expert flier being able to ride the thermal, dive and glide. Like all storks and unlike herons, it flies with the neck stretched.

But the characteristic feature is the gap in the beak. I understand that is an evolutionary feature enabling this bird to pick out snails from field.

This bird is one of the indirect sufferers of the ourbreak of Avian Flu or H5N1 virus. Not directly hit like the bar-headed geese which lost 10% of the world population. But more because of some overeager governments planning to ‘cull’ these birds as they could have caught the virus. While responsible bird research organisations have assured that there is very little risk to human from wild birds, there was a panic in SE Asia as H5N! was found in a remote lake miles away from any poultry population.

Tags:bird, DSCN8629_1, feeder