Pacific Loon

Congratulations! This is the Image of the Week selection for the Birds Gallery, week ending 2nd December, 2011! The midnight sun was lightly diffused by some thin clouds when I took this on my last night in Barrow.

1D Mark IV
800/5.6
Shutter speed: 1/320 sec
Aperture: 6.3
ISO: 500

A perfect image of this species.

Wow! Stunning image of this species.

Gorgeous image Jacob. Love the low angle, pose and bg.

Fantastic Jacob!

Too nice.. BG is just killer here.. really like the 2 tones

Thats a beauty!

another stunner Jacob

Jacob - super shot - I got pictures of same bird - did you notice this one has a green throat - not purple as most Pacific Loons have - not dianostic but green is more typical of Artic Loon. Love the light and the bird calling spectacular!!

Colors and clarity are flawless.

Stunning ,

mlgray12 wrote:Jacob - super shot - I got pictures of same bird - did you notice this one has a green throat - not purple as most Pacific Loons have - not dianostic but green is more typical of Artic Loon. Love the light and the bird calling spectacular!!

Interesting point, Mike. The bird indeed did show a reliably green throat at all angles under direct or diffused sunlight, which would suggest Arctic Loon. Though under heavy overcast skies, where the throat was virtually black, what color I was able to make out seemed more purple than black. Not sure if that means anything. The pale gray nape suggests Pacific, though, as does the lack of a white flank patch visible in any of my photos, and that coupled with the fact that Pacific is much more common in Barrow makes me think it us just a Pacific. I would love for this to be an Arctic Loon, though, so feel free to give me more reasons to change my mind.

Yikes. This is really good!! The facial expression and eye detail really grab me. Just dreamy to look at sir.

Just too good

Wow, Jacob...what a great image! How special to take it under the midnight sun.

I have all same thoughts you have - I have not changed mine to Artic either

tringa wrote:

mlgray12 wrote:Jacob - super shot - I got pictures of same bird - did you notice this one has a green throat - not purple as most Pacific Loons have - not dianostic but green is more typical of Artic Loon. Love the light and the bird calling spectacular!!

Interesting point, Mike. The bird indeed did show a reliably green throat at all angles under direct or diffused sunlight, which would suggest Arctic Loon. Though under heavy overcast skies, where the throat was virtually black, what color I was able to make out seemed more purple than black. Not sure if that means anything. The pale gray nape suggests Pacific, though, as does the lack of a white flank patch visible in any of my photos, and that coupled with the fact that Pacific is much more common in Barrow makes me think it us just a Pacific. I would love for this to be an Arctic Loon, though, so feel free to give me more reasons to change my mind.

Great calling pose Jacob.

Alan Murphy wrote:A perfect image of this species.

Gorgeous Color...

There's everything to like about this, especially the dreamy tones of the setting.

Great angle, light and BG, the open bill and tongue add to it.