I mentioned yesterday that I had been trying to track down an Asian Openbill(Anastomus oscitans) also sometimes referred to as a Asian Openbill Stork, since they are from that family of birds, but ended up having to settle for photographing a small bird called an Indochinese Bushlark.
Well I got a pleasant surprise this morning because the bird in question decided to pay me a visit instead by perching on a coconut palm near my home in Thailand. Needless to say I wasn’t prepared and while I observed my visitor through my binoculars my partner dashed off to get the camera. I managed to set the camera to bracket the exposure because of the poor light and fire off a few hand held shots before the bird got spooked and flew off. The results aren’t brilliant but I am very pleased to photograph this bird and observe it close by.
The Asian Openbill gets its name because the mandible(lower jaw) is such that the bill only closes at the front, which you can clearly see in the photograph. Apparently this aids the bird eating its diet of mainly large snails. As Storks go the Asian Openbill is relatively small and certainly looks more impressive in flight, which is what I will try to capture next.
For none bird lovers I do apologise for the current series of photographs and yes there is another one tomorrow(last in this series) since I got an interesting young visitor to my rear patio yesterday afternoon who turned out to be quite photogenic.
Equipment: Canon EOS 1000D 55-250mm Lens
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