ML620933200

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Continuing rarity here for several weeks. Very large wader; mostly pink, including extremely long legs (ankle joints same pink as long parts) & extremely long & extremely thin neck; large & extremely thick bill bent sharply downward. Bill white on proximal 3/4 & black on distal 1/4 near blunt-pointed tip (color & pattern which, with leg & joint color, leads to AMFL ID); eye round & pale; some of neck washed (stained?) gray; pink body splotched white (indicating immature); remiges black on otherwise darker pink very long & narrow pointed wings seen briefly in flight with neck & legs held nearly horizontal; tail short & mainly pink, but 1 photo shows a narrow black stripe along the outer edge. Seen standing & preening (with intricate neck contortions) in shallow pond water near beach & much shorter Mute Swans. Seen feeding while wading in deeper water which still exposed ankle joints, posture with neck held vertically downward & head underwater while moving both legs in a constant reciprocating forward & backward “moon walk” motion (I hope someone has taken video of this; I could not), evidently to stir up mud & food, and producing surprisingly slow forward progress, but making it hard to imagine how it held its weight (I’d like to see what was going on in that turbid water with the feet as well as the better known upside-down bill with its water-pumping tongue); Seen walking with slower wider leg motion which produced a stately & expected rate of forward progress. Seen sleeping while standing on one vertical leg while the other foot was against or within breast/ belly feathers & its fully bent ankle joint extended well behind its short pink tail & its neck was in a more-than-figure-8 allowing it to rest its head like other birds on its back with its bill tucked among its back/ wing feathers; this I call the Flamingo Yoga Pose. Life Bird in the wild. Photos. Even more weird than I expected. Fantastic in both senses of the word.

Technical information

Model

iPhone SE (1st generation)

Lens

iPhone SE (1st generation) back camera 4.15mm f/2.2

ISO

25

Focal length

4.2 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/2.2

Shutter speed

1/159 sec

Dimensions

787 pixels x 965 pixels

Original file size

150.32 KB