Ming Posted July 23, 2023 Share Posted July 23, 2023 Ming (2023) Nannopterum auritum (Lesson, 1831) (Phalacrocoracidae) Double-crested Cormorant. Bird photographed in ultraviolet light. LINK Location: Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-crested_cormorant. Accessed 23 July 2023. Comment: The bird came up to dry its feathers near the tree where I was taking shelter from heat and UV. It was very close. I took a few pictures with an El-Nikkor 80mm. Then I backed away and shot some more with an EF 200mm. When I got back home, I noticed the reflective dots around the eyes. Webpages that mention cormorant eyes and the surrounding dots talk about how marvelous their colors can be. See an example of the colors here: http://www.digital-images.net/Images/Cormorants/BreedingCormorant_X1174detail.jpg I am wondering whether the dots have any functions. Do they reflect additional UV into the eyes? Do they look dazzling to mates? El-Nikkor 80mm, Baader-U, white-balanced with gray teflon tape, f8, 1/25 sec, ISO 10,000, RAW to JPG by Canon DPP faithful mode, no post-processing Canon EF 200mm f2.8L II, Kolari-U, f2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO 20,000 Link to comment
Andrea B. Posted July 23, 2023 Share Posted July 23, 2023 Really nice work, Ming !! (Later, I'm going to put a header on this topic if you don't mind.) As a general comment (hence, uninformative !), UV-reflective markings on birds/animals are often there for display & attraction purposes. You will have to make some kind of Google search to determine whether anything is known about Cormorants UV-reflective "eye dots". It's quite fascinating to see this. Link to comment
Ming Posted July 24, 2023 Author Share Posted July 24, 2023 Thanks, Andrea, for adding a header. Thank you, Christoph. Link to comment
Ming Posted July 25, 2023 Author Share Posted July 25, 2023 On 7/24/2023 at 11:06 AM, Unscenerie said: Bada$$ looking bird, Ming Indeed, a little removed from lovely :) Link to comment
Doug A Posted July 26, 2023 Share Posted July 26, 2023 Fabulous capture @Ming. Surprised he didn't fly the moment you were noticed. We rarely get to see animals in UV. These are superb quality. Thanks for sharing, Doug A Link to comment
Ming Posted July 27, 2023 Author Share Posted July 27, 2023 9 hours ago, Doug A said: Fabulous capture @Ming. Surprised he didn't fly the moment you were noticed. We rarely get to see animals in UV. These are superb quality. Thanks for sharing, Doug A Thanks a lot, Doug. Link to comment
VideoJohn Posted July 27, 2023 Share Posted July 27, 2023 @Ming those are some crazy isos and very clean pictures....how did you do that? Link to comment
Ming Posted July 28, 2023 Author Share Posted July 28, 2023 @VideoJohn On my monitor, the original 45MP pictures (Canon R5) are grainy, but they become cleaner after they are shrunk to 1.5MP (1500 x 1000). I suppose the grains average out. Just look at any pictures from farther away, and they are all clean :) Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now