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Tufted Ducks


Tufted Ducks
Photo Information
Copyright: Peter van Zoest (PeterZ) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2386 W: 94 N: 5517] (17564)
Genre: Animals
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2009-03-01
Categories: Birds
Camera: Nikon D300, AF Nikkor 70-300mm f4-5.6 G, Digital RAW
Exposure: f/5.6, 1/500 seconds
More Photo Info: [view]
Photo Version: Original Version
Theme(s): CeltickRanger's favorite Anatidae photos -2- [view contributor(s)]
Date Submitted: 2009-08-17 1:22
Viewed: 384
Points: 52
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
These ducks flew away when I came too close to them. The white spots behind the first duck are water drops.

The Tufted Duck, Aythya fuligula, is a medium-sized diving duck with a population of close to one million birds.

Description
The adult male is all black except for white flanks and a blue-grey bill. It has an obvious head tuft that gives the species its name. The adult female is brown with paler flanks, and is more easily confused with other diving ducks. In particular, some have white around the bill base which resembles the scaup species, although the white is never as extensive as in those ducks.

The only duck which is at all similar is the drake North American Ring-necked Duck, which however has a different head shape, no tuft and greyish flanks.
The Tufted Duck is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.

Distribution
The Tufted Duck breeds widely throughout temperate and northern Eurasia. It occasionally can be found as a winter visitor along both coasts of the United States and Canada. It is believed to have expanded its traditional range with the increased availability of open water due to gravel extraction, and the spread of freshwater mussels, a favourite food. These ducks are migratory in most of their range, and winter in the milder south and west of Europe, southern Asia and all year in most of the United Kingdom. They will form large flocks on open water in winter.

Habitat
Their breeding habitat is close to marshes and lakes with plenty of vegetation to conceal the nest. They are also found on coastal lagoons, the seashore, and sheltered ponds.

Food
These birds feed mainly by diving, but they will dabble. They eat molluscs, aquatic insects and some plants and sometimes feed at night.

Source: Wikipedia
boreocypriensis, xTauruSx, siggi, bahadir, maurydv, parasbhalla, goldyrs, cirano, rousettus, Miss_Piggy, CeltickRanger, Gert-Paassen, MMM, zulfu, Noisette, horia, Argus, uleko, anel has marked this note useful
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Discussions
ThreadThread Starter Messages Updated
To Argus: tufted ducksPeterZ 1 08-20 07:49
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Critiques [Translate]

Hi MF Peter,

Once more congratulations and thanks a lot! A splendid in-flight capture of these cute tufted ducks from nice POV with good details.
TFS and have a nice new week!
Cheers,

Bayram

Lovely in-flight shot Peter.
TFS and regards,
Deniz

  • Great 
  • siggi Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1373 W: 56 N: 4716] (16222)
  • [2009-08-17 1:35]

Hello Peter,
n excellent in-flight on this pair of Tufted Duck.Very nice colors and detail. Perfect timing. Best regards Siggi

Hello Peter, great action shot of these ducks with nice composition and details.
TFS and regards,
Bahadır

Wow Peter, this is amazing shot of the birds in flight. What a beauty. I had never able to capture something flying so fast. you have captured it with great clarity and sharpness. This is amazing shot. Event the water drops dripping from the flying bird are amazing. Very well done
TFS,
Kedar

  • Great 
  • joska Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 406 W: 0 N: 1011] (5434)
  • [2009-08-17 1:56]

Congratulations, very good photo of this birds!

Hello Peter,
a very beautiful picture of these Tufted Ducks in-flight, i like the dynamic composition, very good sharpness and beautiful detail of the yellow eyes, splendid OOF BG.
TFS
Best regards
Maurizio

Bonjour Peter,

Wow, what a pretty shot of the ducks 'in flight'! I like the spirit and energy in the picture. The sharpness and POV are very nicely managed to make this shot a great one. The eyes are like tiger-eye colored pearls shining in the sky...wonderful capture overall!

Thanks a lot for your kind appreciation regarding my today's post.

with best regards,
Paras Bhalla

A superb shot, Peter!
I love the way you've captured one duck with its wings down and the other with its wings up!
A superb composition!
Bravo!
Goldy

Slav Peter,
A good capture of these flying ducks from very nice POV.Great composition with nice colors and background.Thanks for sharing.
Dūrzan

  • Great 
  • john1 Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 65 W: 0 N: 85] (356)
  • [2009-08-17 7:12]

Hi Peter,

Excellent capture in fly,good composition.
Details and colors are nice.
Best regards,
John

  • Great 
  • lousat Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 1978 W: 6 N: 5527] (19673)
  • [2009-08-17 8:46]

Hi Peter,surely a difficult work these in-flight ducks whitout the sun.Perfect time of exposure for the best sharpness,a great professional work and a very nice composition.Thanks for share,have a nice day,LUCIANO.

Hello Peter,
what a nice capture for beautiful Tufted Ducks in flight. they synchronized. great timing.
I see this species, mostly in winter period on sea.
thanks for sharing, best wishes
Ahmet

hallo Peter
goede aktie foto ,zo achter elkaar aan en toch op de foto
goed de gele ogen te zien ,super mooie vogels
groetjes lou

Excelent POV,nice picture.Well done.Regards.Alin.

Hallo Peter
Thanks again for sharing one of your great bird images with us. From where I can see, the plumage has a velvety appearance, especially the black feathers. These ducks have lovely wings and it display so beautifully against the green background. The bright yellow eyes and the whitish beaks also displays lovely against the trees as backdrop. I enjoyed reading your lenghty and interesting note. Thanks for sharing. Best regards. Anna

hello Peter

excellent in-flight photo of the Tufted Ducks, with fine POV
and framing, i love each ones different flight pose,
fine focus on them with excellent sharpness and details, TFS

Asbed

Hallo Peter,

wat een practige foto van deze vliegende eenden.
Het doet mij denken aan mijn vliegende Canadeze ganzen.
Mooi gezichtsveld en detailering met prachtige kleuren opbouw.

Gert

  • Great 
  • MMM Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 921 W: 0 N: 1985] (8905)
  • [2009-08-18 9:21]

Hi Peter
Excellent inflight capture.I like that paralel POV.The image is razor sharp with good detail.I like to see two different wing position,one completely down and the other one completely up.
TFS Michel

  • Great 
  • zulfu Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 1055 W: 0 N: 162] (866)
  • [2009-08-18 12:06]

Hello Peter,
Excellent shot of these flying ducks. Great shot.
TFS and G's,
Mehmet

Hi Peter. Superb dymanic taken in exciting light.

Roberto

Hello Peter
very good capture of this flying Tufted Ducks, great composition, i like that one have the wings up and the other down
superb natura colors
Have a good night

  • Great 
  • horia Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2171 W: 218 N: 4383] (14900)
  • [2009-08-19 13:40]

Hi Peter

This is a very nice capture from you!
Even though you lost them when the flew as you were getting closer, you still managed to take this nice in-flight of both of them.
The details are ok but i really like the DOF that blurs the BG wonderfully. Further more, the colors are great and those very attractive bright yellow eyes are very well visible.
Thanks for mentioning what those white spots were...i was wondering :)

Cheers and TFS
Horia

  • Great 
  • Argus Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3813 W: 190 N: 11346] (34981)
  • [2009-08-20 7:01]
  • [+]

Hello Peter,
I missed this excellent in-flight capture of a couple of male Tufted Ducks!
The timing with the contrasting wing positions is great and the their features are wll shown with excellent sharpness and lighting against a contrasting OOF natural BG. Their yellow eyes almost shine!
Well done and thanks,
All the best,
Ivan

  • Great 
  • uleko Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2991 W: 162 N: 949] (2787)
  • [2009-08-21 0:30]

Hello Peter,
A great action capture of the Tufted Ducks in flight. I love the moment you captured with fine shape of the wings and good focus on the bright eyes. They really stand out againsts the fine background.
TFS and regards, Ulla

  • Great 
  • anel Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 1723 W: 0 N: 3903] (15686)
  • [2009-08-21 6:00]

Hello Peter,
It is a pleasure to look at this picture. The two Tufted Ducks are in focus. They are displaying their wings in a different way, which gives a good composition to the whole. Very natural picture with fine colors and a plus with the charming waterdrops and the yellow eyes of the birds.
Bravo!
Kind regards
Anne

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