Daily Bird Photos - No. 2 ~ Killdeer ~

The Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus) is a type of Plover.

They are best known for the little tricks they will perform to try to keep you from finding their nests which are on the ground, hidden among the rocks.

The Killdeer is very well disguised and blends into the rocky ground. If you see one, or hear one, it is probably deliberately drawing your attention after having moved away from the nest.

Above: The bird is standing there being very visible and making plenty of noise - the nest is twenty or thirty feet away.

Above: Here is the mother and a baby chick - look close!

Both parents standing over the nest - along with two chicks and one egg. The egg is very hard to see - beside the right leg of the right-hand bird. It looks like a rock, but it's a little too perfectly round.

Both parents on the nest. These birds did not perform their best known distraction trick - which is to flop around on the ground in circles pretending to have a broken wing. Anything to get you away from the nest! I have seen one do this on a golf course, but not today. I stayed pretty far back from the nest so I wasn't stressing them out, and used my long lens, zoomed all the way out to 600mm.

I took these photos at Cattle Point, Victoria, BC on May 14th, 2017. Equipment used: Nikon D750 and Tamron 150-600mm. All photos were shot at 600mm, 1/1000 second, f/6.3, ISO 640.

Please see the previous editions:

• Daily Bird Photos - No. 1. ~ Bald Eagle ~