ID help needed

[Prajwal J Ullal]

During our last trip to Andaman, we had spent two days at Havelock, Andaman. The resort where we stayed was just next to the sea shore and hence on the first day of our stay I headed off to the beach, due to low tide the rocks just next to the sandy beach was exposed and I could hear some sound of a bird. Even though it was mid noon spotted the bird along the rocky base was very difficult. Fortunately after close to half an hour of search I could spot the beauty, seem to be a juvenile curlew. Due to its rocky colour it used to get camouflaged in the rocks easily, hence it was very difficult to get a clear shot of the bird. With the intentions to get a clear shot I started marching slowly towards the location I had last spotted and finally after a moment it came back to the small water logged place. Seeing that the bird was aware of my presence I took a snap of the bird immediately, before I lose it again. To get a lower angle I got off the rock on which I was, while I had spot the bird, but with an eye on the bird I misjudged the edge of the rock and slipped off and fell onto one side to the marsh. Luckily I got off with mild bruises on my knee but unluckily my DSLR took the hit with full impact as I fell off with DSLR in my hand and directly impacting on the rock. Luckily though my Canon was tough enough and was and is functioning properly with no severe damage to the lens too. That moment was worth experiencing and was imagining how much tougher it would be for a hard core wild life photographers. Due to all this drama the bird witnessed it and in a moment flew off far away from me, but not before I could manage to get this shot.

EXIF:
Canon EOS 550D
Canon 55-250 IS
F/7.1
Shutterspeed 1/1600
ISO 400

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Looks like a whimbrel to me. The plumage on the head is one way to distinguish it from a curlew. Really would have liked to see a flight shot or different angles, but then read about your unfortunate accident.
Glad that the equipment is okay. Hope there's no internal damage. It is all too easy for us to lose our sense of personal safety in the hunt for a good photograph!

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

It looks like a Whimbrel to me also. Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

P.S.: Sorry to hear about the umbrage caused to you. ' Behind every elephant herd there is a lone (female) elephant, beware of it', we were told in our younger days.

[Vipin Sharma]

This is Eurasian Curlew.