One Red Bill

We stopped for this one. Not for a lion, not for an elephant, but for a red-billed hornbill of about forty centimetres, late in the afternoon in the Serengeti grass. If you have ever seen The Lion King you already know him: this is Zazu.

We saw more of them on that trip, but this one was sitting best. Exactly on a bare twig, exactly the right height, with the grass behind him going soft and gold all the way out.

Look at how little room he takes up. Almost the entire frame is grass, and that is precisely why there is only one thing to look at. The red of that bill is the only colour in the picture that does not come out of the plain itself.