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Killdeer and her eggs


Killdeer and her eggs
Photo Information
Copyright: Tom Peak (tkp1165) Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 156 W: 12 N: 595] (3876)
Genre: Animals
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2008-06-13
Categories: Birds
Camera: Nikon D 80, Sigma 50-500mm f4-6.3 DG EX APO HSM
Exposure: f/8, 1/320 seconds
More Photo Info: [view]
Photo Version: Original Version, Workshop
Theme(s): CeltickRanger's favorite Bird photos -2- [view contributor(s)]
Date Submitted: 2008-06-13 15:03
Viewed: 2860
Points: 12
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
I was on a walk down to the Columbia River when I came across this Killdeer sitting on her eggs. I posted a couple more pictures in the work shop. Thanks for looking


The Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus) is a medium-sized plover.
Adults have a brown back and wings, a white belly, and a white breast with two black bands. The rump is tawny orange. The face and cap are brown with a white forehead. They have an orange-red eyering. The chicks are patterned almost identically to the adults, and are precocial — able to move around right after hatching. The Killdeer frequently use a "broken wing act" to distract predators from the nest.

Their breeding habitat is open fields or lawns, often quite far from water, across most of Canada, the United States, and Mexico, with isolated populations in Costa Rica and Peru. Killdeer nest on open ground, often on gravel. They may use a slight depression in the gravel to hold the eggs, but they don't line it at all, or line it only with a few stones. Since there is no structure to stand out from its surroundings, a killdeer nest blends marvelously into the background. Furthermore, the speckled eggs themselves look like stones.

Killdeer hatchlings are precocial birds like many other waders. Birds which hatch blind, naked, and helpless are called altricial. Most birds are born altricial and utterly rely on their parents to bring them food.

Precocial birds stay in the egg twice as long as altricial birds, so they have more time to develop. A one-day-old Killdeer chick is actually two weeks more developed than a one-day-old American Robin nestling. Although adult Robins and Killdeer are the same size, a Killdeer's egg is twice the size of a Robin's. There is more nourishment in the Killdeer egg, to sustain the embryo for its longer time in the shell.
jusninasirun, Art_R, bobair, meyerd, eqshannon, CeltickRanger has marked this note useful
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Critiques [Translate]

Hello Tom. Beautiful sharp capture of this killdeer. I like the light and the perch in natural habitat with excellent detail of the plumage. The eye is pretty big for the size and very well cropped image here. Thanks for sharing and have a wonderful weekend. Jusni

  • Great 
  • Art_R Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 244 W: 20 N: 839] (3892)
  • [2008-06-13 19:44]

Hi Tom , a nice set of photos , nice details and color with a good natural composition. TFS
regards
Art

Hi Tom,
very nice to see this little plover sitting on her clutch of eggs.The day was certainly sunny and the details show up very well.I have killdeer and eggs both but not photoed together at the same time so this makes this shot all that more special in my eyes ,your well detailed workshop photos are what I have got so far.A very good photo with fine details and an excellent note for this one makes this a fine addition to TN and thank you for sharing. Bob

Hi Tom,
wonderful composition. You had to fight the harsh light but you did very well. My congratulations that you caught the animal sitting on the eggs.
Interesting, those killdeers. Many years ago one flew over the Atlantic and into my home town in Switzerland, it was an ornithological sensation (Killdeers don't occur in Eurasia).
Best regards
Dietrich

They seem to like hiding themselves and eggs in certain areas with rocks...this has been my experience in two images...and two different locations...well seen..and I see some volcanic rock there as well..not surprising considering where it was taken.
Bob

hello Tom

WOW ! this is a very very beautiful image of the Killdeer,
with very fine POV, DOF and framing, very beautiful
luminosity of the image, very beautiful smoothness of the composition,
great sharpness and details, and i love that yellow flower in the image, TFS

Asbed

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