Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Mallard

Anas platyrhynchos

Description:

A very common duck. The males have a distinctive green, glossy head, while the females are brown and more plain.

Habitat:

Live near water, and are quite adaptable. These were spotted along Toronto's downtown waterfront --- there were probably more than 100 of them, just hanging out near the shore.

Species ID Suggestions



Sign in to suggest organism ID

4 Comments

alina
alina 11 years ago

I'm definitely biased toward the DSLRs. I bought mine well over five years ago, as a hobby, and I'm still happy with it. And they have gone up in quality and down in price significantly since then. Also, the technical aspects aren't hard to learn and will pay off a lot -- it's worth investing the time.

But I do have to agree with you -- it's the subjects that matter most. ))

SusanRuffanerGahagan
SusanRuffanerGahagan 11 years ago

Thank you for the response with the info. I am in the market for a new camera and I am torn between a good point & shoot and something more technical. My interests are mainly birds (which require a good telephoto lens) and close ups of flowers, butterflies and bugs (which requires a good micro lens). I'm trying to stay away from having to carry two cameras (or one camera with multiple lenses) but I think that is what I'm going to have to do. All the photos I currently have posted were taken with a Nikon Coolpix 4300 (which was a pretty good choice at the time but has become obsolete and something also is wrong with the camera now and it is not taking good pics) or a Lumix FZ35 (which also took reasonable good pics until I took it trail riding with me and I think dust got inside and now it's not working right, either). I'm torn about having it repaired, because technology advances so fast that dumping any money into it might not be the best use of my funds. I've thought about splurging and investing in something leaning toward professional quality that would accept my lenses and filters I already have (that fit my old, film camera; a Minolta X-9.) Then again, I sometimes wonder if I should [try to] sell all that and start over. It's a frustrating decision since this is purely a hobby for me. Additionally, I have no training in photography and most likely will not spend a tremendous amount of time learning the technical aspects of digital photography. I've taught myself enough to get by. lol. It seems I am more interested in learning about the subjects I photograph than I am about how to best photograph them.

alina
alina 11 years ago

Thank you Susan! As for the camera & lens, I use a Canon Rebel XTI, and a Sigma telephoto lens, 70-300 mm. But I do have to point something out that as not to be misleading: the first few pictures are not a zoom-in of the last picture. The first few ducks were pretty near, that's how I was able to get such a close-up --- the lens isn't that good (I wish!).

What camera are you using currently?

SusanRuffanerGahagan
SusanRuffanerGahagan 11 years ago

Beautiful! May I ask....what kind of camera/lens? I'm planning to replace mine and I'm most interested in photographing birds.

alina
Spotted by
alina

Spotted on Jan 4, 2013
Submitted on Jan 4, 2013

Related Spottings

Anas platyrhynchos Mallard Duck Ánade real Mallard duck( female)

Nearby Spottings

Long-tailed Duck Spotting Long-tailed Duck Sea Urchin.

Reference

Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team