Botswana, Animals

Saddle-billed Stork

We saw three kinds of storks on our trip, marabou, yellow-billed, and this one, the saddle-billed stork. It was in a field on the other side of the Selinda spillway, so this was a long range zoom shot.

This bird is huge, nearly 5 feet tall. It's a female. We can tell because its eye has a yellow iris and it lacks waddles under its beak.

I'm really impressed with how colorful and pretty this bird is. That's such a contrast with its close relative, the marabou stork!