Serious Bird Shots

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The Actor

Brown Pelican
(Pelicanus occidentalis)

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Black-capped Chickadee

Black-capped Chickadee
Poecile atricapella

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Nanday Parakeet

Nandayus nenday

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Black Vulture

Coragyps atratus

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Green Heron

Green Heron
Butorides virescens

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Osprey

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Limpkin

Aramus guarauna

Limpkin, shot at sunset, preparing for its evening meal.  Limpkins are very uncommon outside of Florida.  With a length of 26 inches and a weight of 2.4 pounds, they look like giant waders, but five times the size of a Willet, for example.

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Reconnaissance

Brown Pelicans are impressive low-level fliers.  They can often be seen flying at water level.  When gliding, the breast feathers will almost touch the water.  Then as the bird flaps its wings, it will rise just enough to keep the down-stroke of the wing out of the water..

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Morning

This Brown Pelican was shot from the North Fishing Pier at the Sunshine Skyway; that's the bridge in the background.

Despite the fact that the pelicans seem to have bodies that could never fly, they quite enjoy long glides on air currents near their feeding grounds.

I can't get over how, in even my best quality photos, the feathers never seem to be feathers.  Here is there is a metallic or plastic sheen that I am sure would not be seen on other birds in the same light.

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Brown Pelican

Brown Pelican
Pelicanus occidentalis

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The Enforcer

This Brown Pelican has bold breeding colours.  In the breeding season, the head is yellower, and the nape of the neck becomes dark brown.

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Juvenile Roseate Spoonbill
Platalea ajaja

The juvenile Spoonbill still has a feathered head.  In another year, it will have the same featherless head as its parents.

This was shot just before sunset.  The late afternoon sun has cast the shodow of its bill halfway down its back. 

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Cormorant

Double Crested Cormorant
Phalacrocorax auritus

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Brown Pelican
(Pelicanus occidentalis)

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Brown Pelican
Pelicanus occidentalis

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Heartbreaker

Brown Pelican
(Pelicanus occidentalis)

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You Talkin' to Me?

Brown Pelican

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Brown Pelican
Pelicanus occidentalis

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Anhinga
Anhinga anhinga

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Great Blue Heron
Ardea herodias

Great Blue Heron posing for profile shot.  Notice how the feathers are swept to the camera-side shoulder.

From any sort of distance, Great Blues look uniformly gray.  I am always surprised by the amount of colour that is actually there.

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Little Blue Heron

Egretta caerulea

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Little Blue Heron
Egretta caerulea

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Little Blue Heron
Egretta caerulea

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Reddish Egret

Reddish Egret
Egretta rufescens

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Reddish Egret

Reddish Egret
Egretta rufescens

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Juvenile White Ibis

White Ibis
Eudocimus albus

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Great Egret


Ardea alba

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Great Egret

Ardea alba
A Great Egret in the early evening at the Pier.  Great Egrets can be distinguished from Snowy Egrets because they are bigger by a foot or so and have all-black legs and feet.  The bill of a Snowy Egret is all black, while this one clearly has yellow.

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Great Egret

Ardea alba

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Snowy Egret

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Snowy Egret

Snowy Egret
Egretta thula

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Night Heron

Yellow-crowned Night Heron
Nyctanassa violacea

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Juvenile Yellow-Crowned Night Heron
(Nyctanassa violacea)

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Common Loon

Gavia immer

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Common Loon

Gavia immer

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Roseate Spoonbill

Roseate Spoonbill
Platalea ajaja

Not just another pretty face.

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Yellow-billed Stork

Mycteria ibis

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Northern Pintail

Anas acuta

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Turkey Vulture

Cathartes aura

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Red Shouldered Hawk

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Osprey

Osprey
Pandion haliaetus

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Osprey


Pandion haliaetus

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Bald Eagle


Haliaeetus leucocephalus

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Bald Eagle

This one of a nesting pair at Honeymoon Island State Park near Dunedin, Florida.

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Piping Plover

Piping Plover
Charadrius melodus

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Black-bellied Plover
Pluvialis squatarola

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Black-bellied Plover

Juvenile Black-bellied Plover
Pluvialis squatarola

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American Oystercatcher

(Haematopus palliatus)

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Willet

Catoptrophorus semipalmatas

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Willet

Willet
Catoptrophorus semipalmatas

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Ruddy Turnstone
Arenaria interpres

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Dunlin

Calidris alpina

The Dunlin is half the size of the similar looking Willet and about 3/4 the size of a Robin.  This would be non-breeding plumage.

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Least Sandpiper

Calidris minutilla

This tiny sandpiper weighs 20 grams; less than an ounce.  It breeds throughout North America.

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Sanderling

Calidris alba

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Great Black-backed Gull
Larus marinus

This gull is common on the Atlantic coast, but is quite rare on the Gulf coast, so

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Laughing Gull in Winter colour at sunset.

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Laughing Gull

Dressed up and trying to impress.  Laughing Gull in breeding colours,
Larus atricilla

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Laughing Gull
Larus Atricilla

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Laughing Gull

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Ring-Billed Gull

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Royal Tern
Sterna maxima

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Royal Tern

Sterna maxima

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Royal Tern
Sterna maxima

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Willet

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Northern Cardinal
Cardinalis cardinalis

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Norther Cardinal

Northern Cardinal
Cardinalis cardinalis

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Northern Cardinal
Cardinalis cardinalis

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Barred Owl
Strix varia

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Northern Mockingbird
Mimus polyglottos

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Wood Duck

Wood Duck
Aix sponsa
Seen at Mud Lake in Ottawa, October 23, 2023

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Dark-eyed Junco
Junco hyemalis

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Chipping Sparrow
Spizella passerina

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Common Redpoll

Common Redpoll
Carduelis flammea

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Downy Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker
Picoides pubescens