Bucket List # 8 - Crocodile bird

I am sure that most of you who visit my blog regularly, know that I love shorebirds, and there are quite a few on my bucket list. Number 8 is perhaps the most beautiful shorebird on the Urf! Egyptian Plovers can be found across sub-Saharan Africa. It's called the crocodile bird due to a myth/legend. It was once believed that the plover had a symbiotic relationship with crocs. Crocodiles would open their mouths and let the plover pick bugs and parasites off the inside of its mouth! There is no evidence that this ever actually happens but the nickname stands, which is cool. I much prefer the nickname to the accepted English name.

Photoshop can make myth, a reality!

Another reason why the Crocodile bird is so cool is that it buries its eggs in warm sand to incubate, which allows it to spend more time cleaning teeth! When the sand gets too hot the adults wet their belly and then lay on top of the buried eggs to cool them down.