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Australian Pied Oystercatcher

Australian Pied Oystercatcher (Image ID 39393)
Photographed byJim Schultz on Tue 25th Feb, 2020 and uploaded on Sat 29th Feb, 2020 .
Resolution1400x1017
Viewed182
ID39393
CommentInhabiting sandy beaches and tidal mudflats, but also rockier, coastal habitats, the Australian Pied Oystercatcher is a familiar sight along nearly all of the Australian coastline. Here, it probes sand and mud looking for crabs, worms, shrimps and, in particular, bivalve molluscs, that are opened either by stabbing, prising or hammering, which are learned skills. A marine shorebird, it may otherwise be encountered in estuarine mudflats and in pastures. Males and females are alike with orange-red bills and pale, pink legs, but the female sports a longer, more delicate bill. Immature and young birds have a more brown plumage and often a brown-tipped bill. The young birds will not start their breeding lives until in their 3rd or 4th year. The nest is just a scrape in the sand above the high tide mark, but mated pairs will defend the nest and a territory vigorously and will use the same nesting location year after year, if at all possible. Woodman Point; GPS. Status (2016): Least Concern
EquipmentOlympus OM-D E-M1X camera body with Olympus 300mm f4 IS Pro ED M.Zuiko lens + MC-14 Teleconverter; Velbon Neo Carmagne Carbon Tripod with Manfrotto Ball Head Art 498RC2. Camera settings: Exposure Program/Shooting Mode: ‘Manual’; shutter speed 1/800 sec, f6.3 & ISO-400. Metering Mode: ‘CenterWeightedAverage’; Focus Mode: ‘Continous-AF’ with the AF-system further set to ‘AF-Target Mode’ and a target group of 9 sensors (3x3). Drive: ‘Sequential shooting (2frame)’ in ‘Continuous Low’. Maximum burst rate habitually set to 12 to prevent filling up the buffer for which reason also I shoot only in RAW. Image Stabilizer routinely left on (S-SIS AUTO); In-Camera Sharpness +2. (These settings are also the combination I favour for birds in flight; it took a lot of experimentation with the OM-D E-M1X/300 mm F4 lens combo to find a merger of settings suitable for this challenging discipline.) 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 identification, supplementary data and colour checks.
LocationWoodman Point; GPS, Western Australia
Keywordsadult
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