This was a first for me. A Leucistic American Coot. This one has been hanging around a local pond that I had heard about so this AM, I went to check it out.
Any
Is this a composite: No
Olympus OM-1
300mm f/4 with 1.4x TC
Oh I see you upgraded to the OM-1. Nice.
And the bird is really interesting. I have never seen a leucistic one before so it’s a treat. As is the bit of grass and water. I have a few shots of the regularly plumaged American coot and I can’t recall if the eyes are red on those as well. So far as I recall, leucism is different from albinism in the eye color; albinos have pink or red and leucistics have normal eye color at least some of the time. At least that’s how it presents in white tailed deer that I’ve seen.
Yes, the eyes on a regularly plumaged coot are also red so I do think this is leucistic, rather than albinism. That’s what all the other birders here are saying as well so I just took their word, but that is a keen observation about the eye.
This is absolutely fascinating Keith. I’ve seen lots of coots but never anything like this. This must be quite rare. And a very nice composition on top of everything else. You got a great reflection, splash of water from the mouth and superb detail. Impressive!
Amazing specimen, well captured and presented. Decisive moment, for sure. I love the reflection and the crop/composition. Wonderful sharpness and detail in the whites.
I like the head turn and the bits of grass and the water droplets. I must say, this version of a coot seems more attractive than the typical version, and the red eye pops nicely, but I suspect the black is better camouflage.
I see that the new OM-1 has a variety of detection algorithms-bird, animal, train, etc.- but it isn’t quite clear if the bird detect is eye focus or not. What has your experience been?
The algorithms definitely do look for the eyes. If the subject is too far away to detect the eyes, it will detect the subject and show / track a box around the subject. If the subject is close enough or turns its’ head enough to see the eye, another smaller box shows inside the subject box on the eye. The technology available in camera systems today is really pretty amazing. The tracking that I have on my older EM1-X that I’ve been using for the past few years also locks on the eye if available. I think the OM-1 is more sensitive and seems to do a better job, but I’ve only had 2 days of experience shooting with it so far.
