Great Stone Plover at Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary
My recent trip to Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary has been a fruitful one in terms of photography of the birds there. The sanctuary has good boating facilities. We visited on a festival day and the there was hardly any crowd. It was easy to get a boat for for good 40mins. We halted for long stretches of times near the nesting birds.
Great Stone Plover
For today’s post I have Stone Plover. I was capturing it with zoom lens, yet the alert bird got cautious. It is a resident bird of the sanctuary and not migratory. Nocturnal by nature, it is seen sometimes during day time too in search of food for its chicks.
Notice the beak? Almost 7cm and slightly upturned. The long legs were hidden behind the rock. Their yellow eyes are the most attractive. I didn’t hear it make any sound, it is believed to communicate with wailing whistles at night. It mostly preys around for crabs, large insects and other small animals.
Plovers are odd-looking wader with a dark mask, pale eyes, and a large heavy bill. When in flight they reveal black-and-white wingtips resembling those of Lapwings.
They are not huge, may be just about the size of a big hen. The legs, I read later, end in three forward-pointing toes, on which it can run quite fast.
Other names for the bird are: Great Stone-Curlew, Great Stone Curlew, Great Stone Curlew, Great-billed Thick-knee, Great Stone Plover, Great Stone-Plover, Great Stone Plover, Oriental Thick-knee.
What a lovely bird! And great shot.
Great capture of this beautiful bird.
Wow look at the eyes! Beautiful!
Very beautiful bird! Thank you so much for the information…
What a pretty bird. I do like his eyes.
Great shot of a very interesting bird.
A wonderful bird to see… many thanks for sharing.
Beautiful bird. I find birds to be skittish when they see you point a camera in their direction. They fly away! That's why, like you, I try to use my long lens.
Wonderfully captured.
Thanks for sharing. Very similar to Australia's Beach stone curlew (Esacus magnirostris). Great to see!
What a beautiful bird! Yes the eyes are so sweeet! How wonderful with the dark outer line to the yellow eyes! 🙂
Such an awesome photo Indrani! 🙂
Great shot of the beautiful bird.
Ranganthittu is truly a wonderful place to visit and thanks for the details and nice picture.
A 7cm beak – that's massive! Great shot.
Wren x
Excellent click ! loved the bokeh effect in the background !
What a gorgeous, gorgeous bird!
A lovely capture Indrani. The bird is so much like our own Stone Curlew of Europe, but your much bigger and stronger looking. What a huge eye it has – all the better for seeing in the dark!
She is a beauty!!
Ranganathittu is a lovely bird sanctuary. Beautiful photograph of Stove Plover. I should watch for this the next time I am there
What a superb photo of the stone plover. The angle is just right to show off its wonderful beak.
Excellent capture, and yet interesting detail on the bird!
Great shot of this pretty bird!
Brown girl on the rock! 🙂
Nice click! I find it so incredibly hard to capture birds
So beautiful
What a great looking bird.. and a fine photo. Those eyes are beautiful.
Really a good click, Indrani. And thanks for detailing 🙂
Great photo and a very interesting bird. Is it the same as the one I posted from Australia – a Beach Stone-Curlew??
A beautiful and interesting bird! Your shot is superb.
Great job. It's difficult to photograph birds especially if camera does not have long zoom lenses.
What a beautiful bird, thanks Indrani.
What a sharp capture Indrani. Too good. Thanks for additional info. I am intrigued to know more about this capture, like EXIF details and if you had used tripod? If appreciate if you care to share as inline comment or if possible at my email – rao.vidhya@gmail.com.
TIA
really great, heavy-looking bird!
Such a beautiful bird and a superb capture!! I feel like I could reach out and touch him! Wonderful detail!! Thanks as always, Indrani, for sharing the beauty of your world and your beautiful photos!!