Some birds are beautiful because of their bold colors and some because of their subtle and muted colors. To me a male Blue-winged Teal is a stunning bird. This handsome male was photographed at Willowbrook Park in Staten Island. Taken this morning in early morning light while lying in a giant mudflat of frozen goose poop! On a recent trip to Florida I saw hundreds of these guys and some were quite close but I was not able to get a proper angle on them due to be on raised roads or dikes so chose to not even lift my camera towards them. I was bummed about not getting any pics of them while in Florida as they are typically extremely shy when passing through New York City during migration. So I was thrilled when I found this guy yesterday evening while taking a walk with my wife and kids. Went back first thing in the morning to try for some pictures.
Canon 1DX and Canon 500 f4 ii + 1.4x iii. ISO 800, F6.3, SS 1/2500. Manual with Evaluative Metering
Processed with DPP 4.5 and PS. Noise reduction to background with Neat Image.