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Yellow-billed Spoonbill

Yellow-billed Spoonbill (Image ID 39101)
Photographed byJim Schultz on Fri 14th Feb, 2020 and uploaded on Mon 17th Feb, 2020 .
Resolution1400x921
Viewed227
ID39101
CommentThe carnivorous Yellow-billed Spoonbill is predominantly found at freshwater lakes and wetlands with shallow water, but it can utilize just about any body of water, as long as it is fresh. You may, for instance, find it feeding in roadside ditches even when there’s only a bit of water down there. Often, you might see it in flooded pastures in the spring, or it might hang out at a dam. Only rarely does it use saline habitats. The species has a large, spatular bill filled with nerves at the end, allowing the spoonbill to search for food by touch. When foraging, it will typically stick its bill down in water up to eye level and then sweep its head from side to side, like a gold fossicker with a metal detector. When it hits upon prey, it quickly pulls back up its head, flicks the neck and catches the morsel in an open bill and lets it slide down. This bird was aggressively chasing away a competing spoonbill that ventured too close to an obviously rewarding feeding spot. Distributed widely in Australia, it is the author’s feeling that it the species' numbers are on the rise in the Perth area. Bibra Lake; GPS. Least Concern
EquipmentOlympus OM-D E-M1X camera body with Olympus 300mm f4 IS Pro ED M.Zuiko lens. Velbon Neo Carmagne Carbon Tripod with Manfrotto Ball Head Art 498RC2. Camera settings: Exposure Program/Shooting Mode: ‘Manual’; shutter speed 1/2000 sec, f9 & ISO-400. Metering Mode: ‘CenterWeightedAverage’; Focus Mode: ‘C-AF’ and Drive: ‘Sequential shooting (2frame)’ & maximum burst rate habitually set to 12 to prevent filling up the buffer for which reason I also only shoot in RAW. Image Stabilizer on (S-SIS AUTO) & In-Camera-Sharpness +2. Olympus Workspace for metadata; FastStone for viewing & sorting; Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw/CC 2020 for post-processing; Topaz Pro plug-ins Sharpen AI, DeNoise AI & Studio 2 for sharpening and noise control. ‘Australian Bird Guide 2019’ for supplementary data and colour checks.
LocationBibra Lake; GPS, Western Australia
Keywordsadult, non-breeding plumage/features, behaviour/display
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