Wise old bird of Australia ? Great-billed Heron...

A large wading bird of Australia with presence on the coastal belt of North and East Australia. I was extremely lucky to be pointed out two of these birds by Murray the Boat man in the Daintree. When I say large - it is large like 1.1 m and a standing height of 45 odd inches. It was somewhat like the Purple Heron - ummm maybe not - it's lot larger, bill is thick and long and its more brown than purple.

The first sighting of the bird: Great-billed Heron

When we went for the boat ride in Daintree with Mr Murray - I requested, that this Great-billed Heron is one of my target bird. I still remember his reply - I saw it in the last ride - but this is one bird that cannot be promised. It is under these conditions that our trip started - but then when you are lucky - you are lucky - we saw this bird in the first half an hour of the trip only. Frankly - if I was to spot it - there are bright chances that I would have missed it - it was sitting so stationary. It is then that this thought struck to my head - the wise old bird... 

We really cannot call this bird beautiful - I am sure but the confidence and the grace with which it was sitting was a great treat to see. We were just looking at this bird when there was a cough like booming voice from the other side - Mr Murray immediately called out - that's the call of the mate. We tried spotting the second bird but that denied us the opportunity to observe it. It was only spotted once we virtually finished the trip and were on our way back. 

Presenting here some great pictures that I took of this bird.

Okay the bird that gives us good photo opportunities - gets figured more...

Same bird - when it finally moved a little bit - yeah that made me sure that we are watching a live bird...

Okay - that scratch was a move enough - back to yoga...

This is the second bird we spotted while on our way back.

You must take a moment to listen to the booming sound that I just described above. Infact  I am amused that there are only two recordings of the song of this bird on Xeno-canto.