ML83897561

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Just then Larry Urbanski walked up w/ scope in hand, and just as we approached to greet him, he planted the scope and started scanning the ditch directly behind us. I turned and saw a dark rail feeding right in the middle of the ditch. King Rail? I whirled the scope off my back and immediately saw that the bird was a juvenile! It was much larger than the nearby Lesser Yellowlegs, so it must be a juvenile King Rail! As I continued to digiscope the feeding rail, Will and Larry checked the field guides to compare King w/ Virginia Rail. The only real differences we could look for was size (15" vs. 9.5") and color of legs (Virginia Rail juvies have orange-colored legs while King Rail juvies have gray). With the Lesser Yellowlegs (10") feeding next to significantly larger rail, and the black-gray legs showing no hint of orange or red, we were convinced that this bird was indeed a King! see video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=lYg2pi5TnRs

Technical information

Model

COOLPIX P6000

ISO

200

Focal length

6 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/4.1

Shutter speed

319693/25000000 sec

Dimensions

800 pixels x 600 pixels

Original file size

247.01 KB