Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
Observation details
This group of ten was in a pool along Wise Road. After studying them a while, I approached them a little too closely and they flew a short distance up the pool with a chorus of "tu-tu-tu's", confirming the identification. The photos, however, show many useful visual characters. STRUCTURE: Most are relatively trim-bodied and flat-backed; their bills range from short to medium-length, mostly with a deeper base and slightly thicker look than Long-bills show, and with a slight downward kink at the tip, typical of Short-bill. PLUMAGE: All birds that show the underparts clearly have the bright clean orange breast and foreneck of Short-bills in breeding plumage (race hendersoni, the one that occurs in Missouri), with no speckling there, or very slight; the breast-sides (at bend of wing) are finely spotted, not barred; the back is brightly spangled with white to orange feather edges (see especially the second photo); the tail feathers, partially visible in a few images, mostly show equal white and black bars. The bird shown in the last photo is more uncertain, but overall I think it shows Short-billed details that outweigh its superficially Long-billed look.
Technical information
- Model
- Canon PowerShot SX50 HS
- ISO
- 80
- Focal length
- 215 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire
- f-stop
- f/6.5
- Shutter speed
- 1/200 sec
- Dimensions
- 4000 pixels x 3000 pixels
- Original file size
- 2.09 MB