A Wary Micro Nap... (51323238063)

Description:

Summary[edit] Description: This was taken in very low light and I would normally bin it for lack of detail but I quite like the colours and how this Scaup is keeping watch. While taking a nap, they slowly rotate through 360 degrees and always seem to have one eye open. New Zealand scaup (also called Black Teal) are gregarious diving ducks common throughout New Zealand. Compact and blackish, they have the silhouette of a bath-toy duck. New Zealand scaup are quite unlike any other resident duck species. Dark and squat with a rounded profile, they often occur in large flocks, floating with cork-like buoyancy. Scaup are diving ducks and spend a lot of time underwater, where they can travel considerable distances. Both sexes are dark-plumaged, but are easily distinguished. The male has dark black-brown plumage with iridescent blue-green head and wings, and lighter mottling on the chest and underparts. His iris is yellow and bill blue-grey. The female is a duller chocolate brown, paler on her underparts. Her iris is brown and bill grey, normally with a ring of white feathers at the base. nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/new-zealand-scaup. Date: 19 July 2021, 08:10. Source: A Wary Micro Nap... Author: Geoff McKay from Palmerston North, New Zealand.