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Project Noah Nature School
Cinclus mexicanus
A chunky bird of western streams, it is 16.5 cm long and weighs on average 46 g. It has long legs, and bobs its whole body up and down during pauses as it feeds on the bottom of fast-moving, rocky streams.
It inhabits the mountainous regions of Central America and western North America from Panama to Alaska.
I found a pair of Dippers skulking amongst the reeds in an unfrozen part of Vermillion Lakes which is not far from the Banff Town site in Banff National Park. During the summer I often see them near fast flowing streams but in the winter they can be found frequenting stiller waters. It was -7 Celsius when I took this photograph but the natural hot springs were keeping a small area of the lake unfrozen.
Spotted on Jan 7, 2013
Submitted on Jan 11, 2013
5 Comments
Very unique bird. Nice capture. Love you moths, too.
I love dippers and these photos are so good. In our area, they can be found in the swift moving rivers and streams in the summer and also anywhere that there are salmon eggs found in spawning channels or rivers. They love to eat wild salmon eggs! I love watching them "swim" (really flying underwater!) down to get them out of the rocks where they are laid. What a cool bird!
Thanks. Just before I took this photograph, not realising how frozen my fingers were, I dropped my camera. Consequently, I was very releaved to get any photographs at this point...:)
Super cool sighting, Ian! Great spotting and photos!
Very interesting great spot !