American Avocet (<I>Recurvirostra americana)</I> in Mating Plumage

This image was captured at a nature area in Palo Alto/Mountain View (San Francisco Bay Area), California, not far from my home. I went there in two consecutive late afternoons at low tide, and there were a lot of Avocets and other water birds feeding near the shore. It was mid March so that most Avocets have the rusty mating color in their head and neck area. Normally, their head is light grey.

Over those two days, I shot like 200 images in a total of 3 hours or so. This one was from the first day and I like it most among the 200. The main difficulty is that the Avocets move around a lot while they feed. Depending on the position of the bird, the mud in the foreground covers up part of even all of the reflection. This particular image has the best reflection in the entire set.