"The Asian Openbill or Asian Openbill Stork, Anastomus oscitans, is a large wading birdin the stork family Ciconiidae. It is a resident breeder in tropical southern Asia from Indiaand Sri Lanka east to Southeast Asia....."
We call this bird 'Shamukh Khol' or 'shamukh bhanga' possibly because it feeds molluscs ('shamukh' in Bengali and 'khol' is cover). They also catch frogs and insects while moving in and around the wetlands.
Yesterday we went to visit nearby water bodies (lakes you can say) where we found fishermen catching fish by traditional nets and on country boats. And then off the water, we found this pair of birds and a couple of egrets, drongos and some other common birds.
Photo: Abhijit Kar Gupta, Kolkata
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ReplyDeleteIn our way to the university on Kalyani Expressway there is a large water body. Interestingly about one and a month before suddenly one day the lake is covered with lot of openbills. Hundreds of them. I used to see them in the morning at around 10:30 but on our way back at 5:30 I never saw them. And they vanished after 15 days. I was told that this is their common migratory behaviour.
ReplyDeleteI spotted them on the water body by the Kalyani Expressway only! That day I had been on a morning bike trip over there with someone here at our complex.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your translation of shamukh! I found the name in a book, but wanted to know what it meant in Bengali. It's not in the online dictionaries I've tried!
ReplyDeleteIn the ancient Buddhist text I am studying there is a bird called Sithilahanu 'loose jaw'. I think it may be this same bird.