Nobody does it like the Openbill Stork! A native of Indian and South-east Asian wetlands, the openbill is characterized by, well, a permanently open bill! I know you’re wondering what purpose this solves, and there’s an illustrated sequence and passage from my book Bird Business to answer that question!
A visit to just about any Indian wetland will make your acquaintance with an odd-looking stork. The huge gap in its bill is so awkward that you cannot help but wonder what its contribution to the stork’s life is, other than halitosis. But make no mistake, for this unique adaptation is actually precision-cutlery. The Openbill’s favourite food, giant apple snails, have huge, tough and sturdy shells, encasing their soft bodies. While most snail-eaters would first have to worry about cracking the shell open, the Openbill simply slides the tip of its lower bill into the snail’s shell, sliding its body out, without much damage to the shell itself!A bizarre gastronimical adaptation for feasting on gastropods!
Bird Business, published by BNHS, is a collection of 100 such illustrated sequences of the behaviour of wild bird species from India, and is available on Amazon and in bookstores.
The cartoon is from my column with Roundglass Sustain.
Quite the gourmand, feasting on escargot 😁
I had the pleasure of watching one of these storks grabbing hold of snails one by one with ridiculous ease.