Here are some of the larger birds--not as colorful as those little ones were.

It seemed as though every time we saw a raptor it would turn out to be a brown snake eagle.

They are unusual in that they have yellow eyes.  But they are very common to see.

Upon closer examination, sometimes it would turn out to be something else, like a Wahlberg's eagle.  They may look the same but this one has yellow on the beak and no yellow eyes!  It was nice of him to show the underwing to help with the identification!

Here's what looks like just another brown eagle but it's actually an immature Bataleur.  They are planning to change the name to short tailed eagle--how boring.  Bataleur means tight-rope walker which describes the flying style of this bird--the wings rock back and forth like the pole a tight rope walker holds.

He'll grow up to have very distinguished coloring, shown in this very enlarged far away picture.

When we went to the Hippo Pools, the hippos were very still and quiet, so I took a picture of this Goliath heron instead.

Another bird that's magnificent, but difficult to capture on film, because it strides away so fast, is the secretary bird.  They are called that because their heads look like old timey secretaries with quill pens stuck in their hair.  They are 5 feet/a meter and a half, tall so their stride, in those legs wearing half tights, is quite long.

From the magnificent to the somewhat ridiculous--here is a marabou stork, checking out his funny knees.  That appendage hanging from his neck can be filled with air as a bright pink breeding display.  His head feathers are more like curly hairs really than feathers.  This was one of the birds we saw a lot of this trip so you will be seeing them again.