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"Kick-Starting a New Year"

Late afternoon in the Mashatu Game Reserve, Botswana, several Saddle-Billed Storks were fishing in a remaining pool of a dry river bed. This particular stork decided that it was satisfied and suddenly launched itself into the air with a huge kick and flap of its wings to get itself airborne.


Saddle-Billed Stork - Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis

A very tall, black-and-white stork with a diagnostic, red-and-black-banded bill with a yellow “saddle” at the base. In flight, wings are strikingly black and white. Male has brown eyes (female yellow), small yellow wattle (absent in females) and more black on the wing in flight. Juv. is grey, with a brown neck and head; lacks yellow “saddle” on bill. Flight feathers greyish, and leading edge of wing dark. Voice: Normally silent except for bill-clapping during display. Status and biology: Uncommon resident and nomad at freshwater dams, lakes and rivers. Usually solitary or in pairs. Breeds singly in a large platform nest on top of a tree; sometimes on top of an old raptor’s nest.

Nikon D3S, Nikkor 80-200mm, lens with 1.4 teleconverter, effective focal length 220mm, 1/2000 sec @f10.

Photograph by Trevor Woodburn