Stork-Saddlebilled Stork
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A Saddlebilled Stork is a beautiful, large bird. The male (as pictured) has brown eyes and a small yellow wattle under his chin. [Khwai, Moremi NP, Botswana].
The Saddlebilled Stork male has brown eyes (behind); the female has yellow eyes and lack the wattle (foreground)--easily distinguished in this pair. Usual habitat is near a stream, pond or lake, where they search for small mollusks & crustaceans, their principle food. [Khwai, Moremi NP, Botswana].
A male Saddlebilled Stork. The brown eye and small wattle beneath the 'chin' are easily seen. Both sexes have the reddish knees and feet. [Khwai Moremi NP, Botswana].
Saddlebilled Stork (juvenile & female-1st of 4 image)
Saddlebilled Storks: The 1st of 4 images showing a juvenile (L) begging its mother to regurgitate food to it. [Khwai, Moremi NP, Botswana].
Saddlebilled Stork: A Juvenile grasping the mother's beak to encourage her to regurgitate some food. [Khwai, Moremi NP, Botswana]
The mother Saddlebill Stork inserting her bill into the juvenile's, and regurgitating some food. [Khwai, Moremi NP, Botswana]
The mother Saddlebilled Stork continues to feed her youngster by regurgitating the predigested food into the chick's open beak.[Khwai, Moremi NP, Botswana].
A female Saddlebilled Stork walking through the tall grass, slowly flapping its wings, trying to scare up some insects to eat. It gave me the opportunity to photograph the beautiful black pattern on the top of her extended wings.
An immature Saddlebilled Stork with some beak coloration. The brownish plummage is characteristic of a subadult. [Khwai, Moremi NP, Botswana]
A Saddlebilled Stork immature, slightly older than the preceding.There is better beak coloration, but the plummage is just beginning to turn black. [Khwai, Moremi NP, Botswana]
Double Image: L, young, adult male Saddlebilled Stork; R, juvenile with coloration of the beak. The brownish coloration of a patch of the back's feathers have not yet turned white. The eyes are brown, suggesting it's a male, but yet there's no sign of the yellow wattle beneath the 'chin'.
Double image: L, a young male Saddlebilled Stork just beginning to develop his wattle; R, What appears to be an adult male (brown eyes), but no sign of a wattle beneath its chin. [Botswana].
A Saddlebilled Stork male, bent over fishing. (The white bird is an African Spoonbill). I am unable to resist photographing the beautiful Saddlebills. They are a large bird, the colors on their face, and the red segments around their knees, get me every time! Botswana....
...This is the same bird as the previous one, which, by the way is a male. The yellow tabs hanging at the back of the lower jaw are diagnostic of the male. [Botswana]....
Two other Saddlebilled Storks: Note that the closest bird is the male (the two yellow wattles hanging down at the back of his lower jaw. The female is behind him, and lacks the wattles. [Botswana].
