Common Coot

Several canals intertwine on this base which attract various birds including the Common Coot, Fulica atra. Mostly black, red eyes, legs that are long with a green-grey color and a white bill with a frontal shield leading up from the bill. During the Fall season, when these pictures were taken, I usually counted 6-10 Coots looking for food together in the reeds along the canal banks. Coots are very territorial and will chase a competitor away from the group. Looking more like chickens on the water, they flap their short stubby wings and race their claw-like feet over the water chasing another leaving a trail of churning water.

Moving into early Spring the Coots are rarely seen and then in pairs swimming along in the smooth waters of the canals or the lakes among the reeds. Not as shy as the Common Moorhen, described in a future post, the Coots are a delight to watch whether swimming calmly in the smooth waters or chasing one another leaving a wake of surging water.

Pied Kingfishers

I currently work on Victory Base Complex near Baghdad, Iraq. I spend some of my off time photographing birds, flowers and other scenes of nature in the local area. Being restricted to the base limits the subject matter but the base does offer bodies of water which attracts migrating birds and the local varieties providing some subjects for my camera. I shoot with a Nikon D100, Nikon 70-300mm lens and occasionally with my trusted old Nikon 500mm mirror lens. As a reference I use a Princeton Field Guide, Birds of the Middle East, by Porter, Christensen and Schiermacker-Hansen.

The birds seen here are Pied Kingfishers one of which caught a fish during the early evening. The kingfisher will hover over water patiently waiting for a glimpse of a fish and then dive straight into the water hopefully surfacing with a meal. One kingfisher that made a successful catch watches another land on the branch seeking a share of the catch. After the two stare at each other for awhile, the second kingfisher flies away empty handed.
















The next sequence shows the kingfisher preparing to swallow the fish whole. After beating the fish's head against the branch a few times the bird positions the fish head first into its beak and within a minute swallows the entire fish leaving just a bit of tail still seen in its beak.