{"id":109807,"date":"2023-01-24T04:22:07","date_gmt":"2023-01-24T11:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=109807"},"modified":"2023-09-08T02:44:08","modified_gmt":"2023-09-08T08:44:08","slug":"two-american-coot-portraits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/01\/24\/two-american-coot-portraits\/","title":{"rendered":"Two American Coot Portraits"},"content":{"rendered":"

I like these two American Coot portraits that I took at my local pond two years ago. The snowy background on one and the gray in the other set off the coots.<\/p>\n

\"AmericanAmerican Coot with snowy background \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/8000, ISO 1000, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The day these portraits were taken there had been a record breaking snow fall of 11.7 inches in the Salt Lake Valley. Thankfully I didn’t have to go far from home on dicey roads to take these coot images.<\/p>\n

The last time I had been out to photograph birds prior to taking these coot photos the light had been terrible so I had raised my to ISO 1000. Normally in bright conditions I would have it set at ISO 500 or lower. That is why my shutter speed was so high in these images.<\/p>\n

I liked the snow white background in this photo and how well the dark plumage of the coot and its red eye stood out. The melted snow droplets in front of its eye and the top of its head appealed to me too.<\/p>\n

\"CloseClose American Coot \u2013 Nikon D500, f6.3, 1\/6400, ISO 1000, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

As I recall, the gray background in this photo was created by ice in the shadow of shoreline vegetation behind the coot. Like the photo above, I like how well the American Coot<\/span><\/a> stands out from the background in this image.<\/p>\n

Yesterday morning after I published my post about “Missing Our Neighborhood Bald Eagle<\/span><\/a>” the server my site is hosted on crashed which resulted in a prolonged outage. I’m sorry if you weren’t able to view that post yesterday. It was very frustrating trying to get the server back online. Thanks for your patience.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to view more of my American Coot photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I like these two American Coot portraits that I took at my local pond two years ago. The snowy background on one and the gray in the other set off the coots.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":109802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,27,709,26],"tags":[4004,4010,211,6484,4142,2772,2773,4121,1984,4046,4050,4328,8018,373],"class_list":["post-109807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-coots","category-avian","category-salt-lake-county-utah","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-american-coot","tag-background","tag-close","tag-close-up","tag-coot","tag-coots","tag-fulica-americana","tag-pond","tag-portrait","tag-snow","tag-snowy","tag-urban","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/american-coot-portrait-snowbank-mia-mcpherson-3734.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-sz5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":79531,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/02\/18\/winter-american-coot-portraits\/","url_meta":{"origin":109807,"position":0},"title":"Winter American Coot Portraits","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 18, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"After an extremely snowy night and morning I was able to get out yesterday afternoon and take some wintry American Coot portraits close to home.","rel":"","context":"In "American Coots"","block_context":{"text":"American Coots","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/gruiformes\/american-coots\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Snowy American Coot portrait, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/american-coot-winter-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3710.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/american-coot-winter-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3710.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/american-coot-winter-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3710.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/american-coot-winter-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3710.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":109268,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/01\/03\/leucistic-american-coot-in-salt-lake-county\/","url_meta":{"origin":109807,"position":1},"title":"Leucistic American Coot In Salt Lake County","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 3, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"After shoveling more snow I wanted to go to my local pond to see what was there. My jaw dropped when I found a foraging leucistic American Coot.","rel":"","context":"In "American Coots"","block_context":{"text":"American Coots","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/gruiformes\/american-coots\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Leucistic American Coot in low light, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/american-coot-leucistic-mia-mpcherson-7236.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/american-coot-leucistic-mia-mpcherson-7236.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/american-coot-leucistic-mia-mpcherson-7236.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/salt-lake-county-december-snow-storm-mia-mcpherson-0444.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/salt-lake-county-december-snow-storm-mia-mcpherson-0444.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/salt-lake-county-december-snow-storm-mia-mcpherson-0444.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/salt-lake-county-december-snow-storm-mia-mcpherson-0444.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":44150,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/12\/29\/winter-american-coot-portrait\/","url_meta":{"origin":109807,"position":3},"title":"Winter American Coot Portrait","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"When the birds settled back down on the pond this American Coot walked up onto the shore with the open water behind it and I couldn't resist taking portraits of it.","rel":"","context":"In "American Coots"","block_context":{"text":"American Coots","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/gruiformes\/american-coots\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"American Coot portrait, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/american-coot-portrait-mia-mcpherson-9258.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/american-coot-portrait-mia-mcpherson-9258.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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