Asian Openbill Stork

Asian openbill storks and Apple snails

From far, I thought I saw some striking red “chili padi” fruits in the rice fields. With the camera zooming in, I thought they were the eggs of frogs. With some research later, they were in fact the eggs of apple snails, or golden apple snails. Apple snails are pests to farmers, as they eat up quickly and damage the rice seedlings after sowing.

The snails can be delicacies to human. I have tried them in Ipoh several years ago at one restaurant in Ipoh Tasek called Bukit Tambun Seafood Restaurant. The half-cooked snails were delicious but we were advised by the restaurant to remove the slimy internal organs and the albumen glands before eating. I stopped after having two or three of them, due to my feeling of the unhygienic cooking.

Asian openbill storks are known to eat the apple snails as their favourite food. I have not seen any farmer doing anything to drive away or harm the flocks of birds. Rice field farmers understandably welcome them as their “farming partners” and co-exist with them.

(Photos taken May, 2016, Sungai Dua, Seberang Perai)

Asian Openbill Stork

钳嘴鹳

On the way back from Sungai Petani, we saw quite many of these large birds foraging for food in the padi fields along with other waders like egrets.  On flight, they are majestic birds.

Looking closely at the face of this large bird with huge mandibles gave me the feeling as though it was from the Jurassic Era. The large mandibles with an opening in between (hence “Openbill”) can be used for cracking and eating the golden apple snails which are pests in the padi fields. The Chinese name of the bird is called “plier-billed stork”, giving the bill a sense as a tool for cracking.

(May, 2016,  Kepala Batas)

Asian Openbill Stork

钳嘴鹳

A flock of about 20 Asian openbill storks were seen swirling and riding on thermals of warm air more than 100 ft high above the open rice fields near Air Hitam Dalam. 

Large flock of storks hovering in the air is becoming a more common scene above the padi fields. A sighting of more than 240 of them at the rice fields of Batang Tiga, Malacca, was reported by an MNS bird group in 2012.

(May 2016, Air Hitam Dalam)