Male bufflehead, Bucephala albeola, photographed at Richmond, California, USA.
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 28 December 2010 [velociraptorize].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/180s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400
Question: This North American mystery bird species has a special talent that distinguishes it from all others that are placed into the same group. Can you tell me what that talent might be?
Response: This is an adult male bufflehead, Bucephala albeola. This is one of the smallest species of diving ducks in North America. Unlike other diving ducks, buffleheads have the ability to take off from water without first running along the surface -- a talent shared with the dabbling ducks.
I know this bird stumped a lot of you, so here's another look at the same individual, a nanosecond before the above image was snapped:
Male bufflehead, Bucephala albeola, photographed at Richmond, California, USA.
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 28 December 2010 [velociraptorize].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/160s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400
You are invited to review all of the daily mystery birds by going to their dedicated graphic index page.
If you have bird images, video or mp3 files that you'd like to share with a large and (mostly) appreciative audience, feel free to email them to me for consideration.
