Drooling Drake

[Randy Stout]

This Mallard drake was captured yesterday at the local bird sanctuary. I didn't notice anything special about it until I was reviewing the images. There were about 20 images in the series, and starting at about the 3rd image in, he started to drool? The water gradually increased throughout the series, with it spraying behind him and onto his breast. I can't ever recall seeing anything like this before. Curious if others have seen this. Not the greatest pose, but I thought odd enough to share.

Nikon D500. 500 PF. f/6.3. Iso 2000. 1/1600 sec
Post: small crop for comp. Cleaned up a few spots in the background, and used noise reduction on the background.

Advice and comments are appreciated.

[arash_hazeghi]

have never seen this behavior before. I wonder if the discharge is some kind of vomiting ?

TFS

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Randy a very cool behavior shot !!!
All working nicely together in the tonal and color compartment , just wish for more finer detail in the bird .

TFS Andreas

[Tim Munsey]

That's some cold! Adds something special, not seen that before.

TFS

[Steve Kaluski]

Well framed Randy, with an unusual behavioural aspect too.

TFS
Steve

[John Mack]

Neat frame. After reading Arash's comment i too wonder if the bird maybe spit up or vomitted a little. Love the background.