Masked Duck
© Karen Lindquist
Published:
January 25, 2010
Karen Lindquist of West Palm Beach, Florida, photographed this male Masked Duck
(Nomonyx dominicus) at
Viera Wetlands in Melbourne, Florida. The species is an "irregular visitor to Louisiana and Florida and a resident of Texas, the only state where nesting has been documented," according to
Birds of North America Online. This bird showed up in late December 2009 and is still being seen in late January.
"He was resting in the vegetation for a while but finally came out to dive down for some food," Karen says. "He would come up just long enough for a shot or two. Here I was lucky enough to catch him stretching his wings after telling the coots who's boss. It was a dark, cloudy morning so I had to overexpose the background to get the details on the duck to show up nice. I love the blue bill." So do we!
Karen used a Canon Rebel XT with a 100-400 mm lens and 1.4x teleconverter on a tripod.
See Karen's photo of Least Grebes, the first ever to nest in Florida.
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