According to the books Australasian Darters and Little Pied Cormorants don’t have any blue colouring.
Australasian Darter (Anhinga novaehollandiae)
Canon 7D, 100-400mm L IS USM, 1/320, f/7.1, ISO 500, focal length 170mm
The image above was taken late in the afternoon when the sunlight was coming from a low angle. I have been watching darters for several months and the blueness of their feathers is obvious but none of the field guides mention blue! They don’t even say ‘blue-black’ sheen. I’ve checked Pizzey & Knight, Morcambe, Slater, and Simpson & Day. I looked in the Reader Digest’s Complete Book of Australian Birds, I checked online sites including Birdlife Australia and the Avianweb, neither of which mention blue despite some of their images showing the colour. It’s very strange.
It’s fascinating that some of the darter’s tail feathers and primaries look like seed pods and I really like the bug damage that looks like grub grafitti on the fallen tree.
Little Pied Cormorant
And despite the books stating that Little Pied Cormorants are ‘entirely black above’ this one definitely shows some blue. If I hadn’t seen the colouration with the naked eye I might try to expain it away as some kind of chromatic aberration. As the Little Pied was swimming it looked as though it was being followed by a blue object, its tail. Morcombe mentions a slight greenish sheen for littles but this is definitely blue and definitely not slight.
Little Pied Cormorant
The image above doesn’t show any blue but its body and tail look like they belong to an otter or water rat.
I haven’t enhanced the blue in the images so hope that it shows on all screens, otherwise I could have people thoughtfully booking me places in homes for the bewildered.
Happy birding, Kim
NB It is possible to receive a weekly email letting you know that lirralirra has been updated – just add your address to the ‘Subscribe to email’ box above right.
Also, I recently added a Facebook ‘like’ button. Thank you to all ‘likers’ – I like you too!
These are delightful Kim! The darter looks very much like our North American Anhinga. I always loved seeing them.
Thank you Mia. It’s fascinating that we ‘share’ some species of birds while others are so different.
hi kim
the 1st picture is stuning, the feathers are so bright, as if he had put a fresh paint ;))
and the small youngs are beautifull too, good captures
have a nice day kim ;)))
Ah, maybe it went to the blue paint instead of the black 😉 Have a great weekend!
Beautiful lighting on the first Cormorant. And I just love your cute Little Pied Cormorants. Gorgeous shots. Have a happy weekend!
Wouldn’t it be lovely if we could conjure up good lighting whenever we wanted it! Have a lovely weekend Eileen, with lots of lovely lighting.
Stunning photos.
Quite definitely blue. And I am always astonished at how often the ‘experts’ miss things like that.
Oh yay, you can see it too! It’s funny that none of them mention it.
Beautiful photos, Kim. You do such a good job with the Canon 7D Camera and the Canon 100-400mm Lens.
Carole. 🙂
Thank you Carole! They’re such a great team to be working with, though I sometimes dream about others and a sherpa 🙂
That’s so odd. It definitely looks blue to me. Love the first image
I’m glad you like the darter and that you can see the blue too!