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<\/p>\nPhotographing bathing birds is always fun but getting quality photos during all the pandemonium isn’t easy, especially when a black bird with a white bill is involved.<\/p>\n
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Six days ago at a local pond this American Coot allowed me a close up look at ‘his’ ablution. I’m always surprised by how often waterfowl feel the need to bathe since they spend so much time on and in the water but it does make for some interesting photo ops.<\/p>\n
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Coots are difficult photo subjects during their bath. Like other birds it’s hard to get their eyes open and visible during the frenetic activity but the deep blacks on their head and dorsal surfaces make it extra challenging to get much detail there, especially without overexposing their mostly white bill..<\/p>\n
The flying water drops can also present a problem. If one of them is directly in front of the eye, as in the first photo above, it can be more than a little distracting to the viewer.<\/p>\n
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Most waterfowl are extremely buoyant so they have to work hard to get water to wash over the tops of their bodies and that effort can result in some interesting photos. Here I caught him with one wing flopping out of position and his head all sucked down into his body.<\/p>\n
But as we can see his strategy worked.<\/p>\n
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I’m not sure how he managed to get this narrow stream of water shooting over his back but it was definitely an effective bathing technique, no matter how he did it.<\/p>\n
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Several times he rose vertically out of the water and slapped one or the other of his wings against the water’s surface – never both at the same time.<\/p>\n
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It was a struggle for him to get his entire body underwater – this is about as close as he came.<\/p>\n
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For reasons I’ve discussed in the past coots are easy to ignore but the bird photographer does so at his\/her own peril. Interesting behaviors such as bathing or fighting can erupt at any moment so the photographer has to be prepared. And their incredibly ugly chicks are a photographer’s dream.<\/p>\n
But their chicks are a subject for another day.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
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Note to photographers: <\/em><\/p>\n Image techs for these photos: 1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photographing bathing birds is always fun but getting quality photos during all the pandemonium isn’t easy, especially when a black bird with a white bill is involved.<\/p>\n