Feathered Lonely Heart - Happy Valentine's Day!

[Marina Scarr]

Recently stumbled upon this image in the archives and thought it was perfect for Valentine's Day. It's a chick posed on a mangrove rookery. Anyone care to take a guess on the species?

I really love the unique perspective of this pose. I would normally not have chosen a subject with its back to me but was blown away by the heart. I have another image of this chick with its head turned and the heart still visible but, for some reason, it's simply not as powerful an image. Would love to hear your opinions. Maybe I"ll share the other image farther down the thread.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Canon 1D3, Canon 400DO & 1.4TC
F8, 1/1600sec, ISO 400, manual mode
HH

[douglas hayes]

Is it a booby? Is this the usual feather pattern? A very fun image

[Doug West]

Pelican. Since its in Florida, I'll say Brown Pelican.

Doug

[arash_hazeghi]

that's so cool Marina

[gail bisson]

Love it!
Well seen and executed.

Gail

[Karl Egressy]

Nice image for Valentine's Day, Marina.

[William Dickson]

Love it, and happy valentines day to you aswell Marina

[Satish Ranadive]

Superb image to celebrate Valentine Day.
Very Happy Valentine's Day to you too !!!

Regards,
Satish.

[John Robinson]

All the best Marina
Cool shot !
John

[Daniel Cadieux]

The subject may be looking away but you got a perfect heart angle! Well seen Marina

[Bret Goddard]

Happy Happy to you too, beautiful Heart, great catch in my book!

[Jim Crosswell]

Excellent image Marina!

[Troy Lim]

Me like...so unique.

[Ashleigh Scully]

Aww this is co cool. I think Brown Pelican just because that's what I see so often down there.

I love this! Happy Valentine's Day to you too!

[Rob Melone]

The heart really makes this very special.

[Marina Scarr]

Thanks so much for all of the comments. I think most of you knew or know it's a young Brown Pelican. They are born completely white!