Botswana, Animals

Blacksmith Lapwing

Birds have never been a passion of mine, but we found so many colorful ones on this trip that I started photographing them more than I expected.

Above is a blacksmith lapwing. It's a shorebird with long legs for wading but nests on the ground. In fact, I took another picture of one sitting on her nest in the sand.

This next one is a wattled lapwing. It's very closely related but looks totally different, as you can see.

The last one is another wading bird, but it's not a lapwing at all. It's a Jacana. These have extremely long toes for walking on floating vegetation, and they even build nests that float on the water so their eggs are not flooded.