Trivia question for Oct-21-2011

Carter’s turn and he picked a colorful bird for his trivia.  These birds are the tallest and most strikingly colored of their species in Africa.  Their broad wings allow it to soar above the plains. It is spectacularly plumaged, identical in male and female. The head, neck, back, wings, and tail are iridescent black, with the rest of the body and the primary flight feathers being white. Juveniles are browner grey in plumage. The massive bill is red with a black band and a yellow frontal shield. The legs and feet are black with pink knees. On the chest is a bare red patch of skin, whose color darkens during breeding season.

Like most of its relatives, these birds feed mainly on fish, frogs and crabs, but also on small birds and reptiles. They move in a deliberate and stately manner as they hunt, in a similar way to the larger herons.

So here are Carter’s questions:  Tell us what kind of bird this is and where they like to build their nests?  Also, tell us what these birds do to a catfish before swallowing them?

Good Luck 😉

Answer:

Congratulations goes out again to our faithful follower Tami Kannenberg for being the first to answer all our questions correctly. The colorful bird we featured is the Saddle-Billed Stork. The Saddle-billed Stork is a large wading bird in the stork family. It is a widespread species which is a resident breeder in sub-Saharan Africa from Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya south to South Africa, and in The Gambia, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and Chad in west Africa. This is a close relative of the widespread Asian Black-necked Stork.

These large birds build vast nest high in the canopies of tall trees or deep within wetlands, out of the reach of predators.  An abandoned saddle-billed stork’s massive nest may be used by other large birds such as secretary birds.  The Saddle-Billed Stork snips off the spines and ‘whiskers’ of catfish before swallowing them.  Here is more on these sharp birds: Saddle-Billed Stork

Thanks for playing along 😉