{"id":55836,"date":"2019-01-28T05:16:22","date_gmt":"2019-01-28T12:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=55836"},"modified":"2025-10-09T17:14:31","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T22:14:31","slug":"adult-american-coot-with-a-dirty-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/01\/28\/adult-american-coot-with-a-dirty-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Adult American Coot With A Dirty Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AmericanAmerican Coot with a dirty bill – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday morning was cloudy so I didn’t go out into the field but I did spend a few minutes in the afternoon at my local pond in the afternoon because it was mostly sunny then.<\/p>\n

The pond only has a little ice on it now thanks to several warm and sunnier days but that meant that most of the birds I wanted to photograph were way out on the pond instead of being close up.<\/p>\n

An American Coot<\/span><\/a> with a dirty bill wasn’t shy at all when it climbed out of the pond close enough for me to take portraits of it.<\/p>\n

Some photographers might have “cleaned” the bill up in post processing by using the clone brush to remove the bits of vegetation on the bill but that just isn’t the way I do things.<\/p>\n

If the bill is dirty, I leave the dirty bits there.<\/p>\n

Nature isn’t perfect and I feel that should be shown in my images in order to be authentic. I was going to write a longer post about that topic this morning but I have been having connection issues again so that will have to wait until another time.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

An American Coot with a dirty bill wasn’t shy at all when it climbed out of the pond close enough for me to take portraits of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":159609,"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":[4010,5552,4142,2772,2773,6945,4121,4046,3973,4050,8018,30,373],"class_list":["post-55836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-coots","category-avian","category-salt-lake-county-utah","category-utah","tag-american-coot","tag-bill","tag-close-up","tag-coot","tag-coots","tag-dirty","tag-fulica-americana","tag-portrait","tag-salt-lake-county","tag-snow","tag-urban","tag-utah-2","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/american-coot-dirty-bill-mia-mcpherson-5596.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-ewA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":74904,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/10\/26\/calling-american-coot-adult-portrait\/","url_meta":{"origin":55836,"position":0},"title":"Calling American Coot Adult Portrait","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 26, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"This adult American Coot may look like it is screaming but in reality it is simply calling out because another bird got close to it next to the shoreline of a small pond.","rel":"","context":"In "American Coots"","block_context":{"text":"American Coots","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/gruiformes\/american-coots\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Calling American Coot portrait, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/american-coot-calling-mia-mcpherson-8013.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/american-coot-calling-mia-mcpherson-8013.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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2014","format":false,"excerpt":"American Coots are common birds and some folks might find them fairly plain but I like them and enjoy photographing them too.","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 munching on food, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/american-coot-eating-mia-mcpherson-6359.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/american-coot-eating-mia-mcpherson-6359.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/american-coot-eating-mia-mcpherson-6359.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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days ago I photographed this adult American Coot bathing on a sunny afternoon at a pond close to where I live in Salt Lake City.","rel":"","context":"In "American Coots"","block_context":{"text":"American Coots","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/gruiformes\/american-coots\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult American Coot bathing in icy cold water, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/american-coot-adult-bathing-mia-mcpherson-8517.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/american-coot-adult-bathing-mia-mcpherson-8517.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/american-coot-adult-bathing-mia-mcpherson-8517.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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