GREATER PAINTED SNIPE IN NNP

Dear All,
Yesterday I reported on a male Greater Painted-Snipe we had found on a
marsh on the Cheetah Gate Road in Nairobi National Park. Whilst we
were watching this bird, a discussion broke out which all started out
that in the case of Painted-Snipe, it was almost unique in birds in
that the female was more beautiful than the male. I disagreed with the
statement saying that I thought that the female was more immediately
striking than the male, in having such an arresting pattern. With the
sexual reversal in other non-passerines, where the female seduces the
male, mates and subsequently lays the eggs, from when he has to take
care of her clutch as soon as they are laid, it is no surprise that
the males who do all the work in raising the brood, has a more cryptic
colouration. In the other members that practice this strange breeding
behaviour, Phalaropes, Buttonquails and Eurasian Dotterel, the male is
a more washed out version of the female. Not so in our Painted-Snipe,
and I contend that the male in spite of not being so striking, is
still the more beautiful of the sexes, just look at the adornments on
his wings in the attached image taken yesterday.
So whilst the conversation was taking place, it is only now looking at
the image I can see to the right of the male something we had
overlooked completely!

It just goes to show, that when engrossed in taking an image of a
bird, that there is still a world going on outside of that field of
view!
Best to all
Brian