One of a couple of White-winged Scoters at Newport's South Jetty swam in reasonably close to me while I was down near the water taking pictures of Surfbirds and Black Turnstones. It was mostly back lit, but the pictures didn't turn out too bad. Scoters have the craziest looking bills.
Great photos... I love their eyes.
ReplyDeleteYou can identify all 3 North American scoters by just the pattern of feathering at the base of their 'crazy looking' bills.
ReplyDeleteI know, I know,... but this isn't just useless trivia. This actually can be useful on some brown juvenile scoters in fall and winter, especially if the birds are sitting out in the middle of the water with pale patches on their head and you can't make out whether there's a white wing panel or not.
Thanks for the info Greg.
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