Don
I haven’t ever seen a bird look as deadly as this Marabou Stork. He looks cool, calm, collected and totally in control. Marabou storks are large scavenging birds often as high as 4-5 ft tall. I had never seen a scavenging bird at such a close range before, but I was lucky that these gigantic birds were roaming free in our lodge.
What was surprising was his reaction, he didn’t even flinch as I lay down on the ground to photograph him. He isn’t the most beautiful of animals; but he is striking. The bald head, the soft fleshy pink next, the haunting eyes and the beak; that beak lined and stained with the blood and guts of the animals he has devoured. As I took more shots of him, he looked more and more dark and twisted. Almost like a criminal lynchpin, a don, just imposing and intimidating with his appearance.
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Mount Kenya National Park, 2014