Great Thick Knee
A large wader at about 50–55 cm in height, the Great Stone-curlew or Great Thick-knee (Esacus recurvirostris) is a resident breeder along rivers and lakes (pr...
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A large wader at about 50–55 cm in height, the Great Stone-curlew or Great Thick-knee (Esacus recurvirostris) is a resident breeder along rivers and lakes (preferring gravel banks), and sometimes even beaches in southern Asian tropical regions from India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka into Southeast Asia. Thick-knee refers to the prominent joints in the long, yellow or greenish legs.
Like all other Stone-curlews, the Great Stone-curlew is generally nocturnal or crepuscular, but sometimes forages during the day, moving very slowly, with occasional short runs.
The bird has grey-brown upper parts and breast, and whitish underparts. The face has striking black and white patterns and a massive, seven-cm, upturned black bill with a yellow base. The eyes are bright yellow. In flight, the Great Thick-knee shows black and white flight feathers on the upper wing, and a mainly white underwing. The sexes do not show great sexual dimorphism but the young ones are distinctly paler than the adults.
The bird’s call, a wailing whistle, is heard mainly at night along with that of other birds in the family. The Great Thick-knee feeds mainly on crabs and large insects.
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Like all other Stone-curlews, the Great Stone-curlew is generally nocturnal or crepuscular, but sometimes forages during the day, moving very slowly, with occasional short runs.
The bird has grey-brown upper parts and breast, and whitish underparts. The face has striking black and white patterns and a massive, seven-cm, upturned black bill with a yellow base. The eyes are bright yellow. In flight, the Great Thick-knee shows black and white flight feathers on the upper wing, and a mainly white underwing. The sexes do not show great sexual dimorphism but the young ones are distinctly paler than the adults.
The bird’s call, a wailing whistle, is heard mainly at night along with that of other birds in the family. The Great Thick-knee feeds mainly on crabs and large insects.
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Oct, 2014Views
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Awards
Fall Award 2020
Peer Award
Absolute Masterpiece
Magnificent Capture
Superb Composition
Top Choice
Superior Skill
All Star
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken at Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary, Karnataka, India. A sanctuary which invites more than 300 species of birds to migrate from different parts of the world. An exciting place which not only invite birds, but also contains reptiles (marsh corocs).Time
Early morning - much before 9 A.M. These Great Thick Knee birds are found only on the rocky stones which are located in the middle of the river. We had to travel using a boat to find these birds activity, and captured this image from a moving boat - by listening to 100's of shutter clicks made by other photographers in the boat.Lighting
It's that time of the day where hard light is just beginning to pick up and birds are moving to their nests to feed their young ones - and they rest until afternoon and come back for their lunch around 3 P.M. As said best time is to click when sun is just rising up, but for bird photography, I always believe we need more light to shoot.Equipment
Nikon 300s, Sigma 500mm, handheld!!Inspiration
Always fond of taking pictures when birds are on flight - had shot several images but never got the details on them. When I shot this image - I exactly knew what details I was looking for from a birds flight.Editing
My post processing involved color correction and cropping the picture so that I can position the image in the right frame. Camera and lens had provided nice results in terms of sharpness and clarity (noise).In my camera bag
Any shoot, I prefer having 50mm lens (travel brings lot of candid moments and this is a perfect lens to capture candids), 18-70 lens (a simple wide angle lens just serves the purpose for landscapes), depending on the shoot I carry 500mm lens with 1.4x teleconverter and a 105mm Macro lens.Feedback
You need to practice!! Everyday turn your camera on and work with it so that you will know which button is used for what purpose. Try to visit near by parks and see if you can take a shot of a bird's flight using a simple 300mm lens. It helped for me, and it will help you all!!
