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Tom Grey | all galleries >> Galleries >> Miscellany > Common Moorhens, chick wing spur
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23-JUN-2007 Tom Grey

Common Moorhens, chick wing spur

Shoreline Park, Mountain View

This picture is not well-enough focused to be pleasing to the eye, but I post it because it shows an unusual feature of the species, as described in the Birds of North America entry: "Chick has a 1- to 1.5-mm-long spur on alula (wing) that permits grasping when chick climbs emergent vegetation, enters nest, or clings to submerged vegetation when swimming underwater." Detail at http://www.pbase.com/tgrey/image/81140678 .

Canon EOS 20D ,Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM
1/400s f/8.0 at 700.0mm iso400 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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