Black-necked Stilt

[bajadreamer]

This bird was shot at the Salton Sea, a unique body of water in Southern California. Although the Sea is shrinking markedly during these drought years, it is still home to 10's of thousands of wading birds and ducks over the winter. I like the reflection of this bird in the early morning light. While this species is common, it is often hard to get good shots as they move rapidly while feeding and are hard (at least at my age) to get low perspectives. This shot was slightly cropped from the left and bottom and had some debris on the surface of the water cloned out. Otherwise had slight contrast elevation and DeNoise AI applied.

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[Roaring 40s]

An elegant bird. Nice work.

 

[Callie]

Lovely Stilt. I do not know this species as they do not visit our shores. Is this a juvie or is this an adult? Juvies normally have lighter coloured legs!

 

[bajadreamer]

An elegant bird. Nice work.

Thank you for the kind words. Yes, they are an elegant bird-almost the "tuxedo" look.

 

[Irap]

Great shot. love the reflection Bajadreamer

 

[bajadreamer]

Lovely Stilt. I do not know this species as they do not visit our shores. Is this a juvie or is this an adult? Juvies normally have lighter coloured legs!

They are relatively common here, but localized. Some places lots of them, others none. They can wade a little deeper than many of the other wading birds. I believe this is an adult; some of them are jet black while others, like this one, have a little brown or even reddish appearance over the back. Not sure if that is individual differences or if that is maturation.

 

[bajadreamer]

Great shot. love the reflection Bajadreamer

Thank you. It does not show in the picture, but this bird was walking fairly fast. You can see the trailing wake behind him that shows that.