Nick Hardcastle

I’ve been studying a colony of oriental darters over the last few months. Also called the snake bird because of the way it swims in the water with only its long flexible neck showing, it’s a near threatened species. The breeding colony has largely been successful this year, but last week I saw this bird with its beak trapped in discarded netting or sacking. It’s the ninth bird this year. Usually they can’t get free and starve to death.