Birds of a feather
Ruffed grouse (Photo by Yaremchuk)
This winter I am taking the second half of a two-part ornithology course. The coursework is focused on taxonomy and identification, and as such I spend a lot of time in a lab handling specimens, both mounted and study skins.
The average birder will tell you that one of the many reasons for the hobby is that birds are beautiful, a fact that I am sure is known to most people. However, birds in the wild are not always sitting still in perfect lighting, so it can be a challenge to fully appreciate their feathers.
Thus I thought I would share in an abstract kind of way how handsome and varied the plumage of birds found in eastern North America can be, using the study birds from the lab. Preferably I would have taken these pictures with a real camera (I used my cellphone), tripod, and better lighting, but I think the beauty of the feathers still shines through.
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Click on the image to enlarge.Male hooded merganser breast, flank and scapulars (Photo by Claire Elliott) -
Click on the image to enlarge.Gray partridge breast feathers (Photo by Claire Elliott) -
Click on the image to enlarge.Northern gannet juvenile breast feathers (Photo by Claire Elliott) -
Click on the image to enlarge.Male ring-necked pheasant coverts (Photo by Claire Elliott) -
Click on the image to enlarge.Male ring-necked pheasant flanks feeathers (Photo by Claire Elliott) -
Click on the image to enlarge.Male ring-necked pheasant retrices (Photo by Claire Elliott) -
Click on the image to enlarge.Female ring-necked pheasant mantle feathers (Photo by Claire Elliott) -
Click on the image to enlarge.Male ruffed grouse retrices (Photo by Claire Elliott) -
Click on the image to enlarge.Sharp-tailed grouse mantle (Photo by Claire Elliott) -
Click on the image to enlarge.Male wood duck breast feathers (Photo by Claire Elliott)
This post originally appeared on Claire's blog, Birds of a Feather.
About the Author
Claire Elliott is a GIS and conservation data assistant with the Nature Conservancy of Canada.
