A female I assume as it had a breast pocket in which to sit over the eggs? You can see it better in the second shot but I did not get the one in which she nearly stuck her entire head in it. Entertaining to watch.

Good Series :) I havent had anything to post in the last few days . Im living pure Hell at the moment . One TStorm after the other but theres light at the end of the tunnel my week of troublecall duty finishes in the morning :)

Nice! That is called a brood patch BTW.

Good Series :) I havent had anything to post in the last few days . Im living pure Hell at the moment . One TStorm after the other but theres light at the end of the tunnel my week of troublecall duty finishes in the morning :)

Hope you got to go out and shoot. Look forward to seeing your results. Thanks for commenting.

Nice! That is called a brood patch BTW.

Thanks, Paul. I guess breast pocket doesn't sound as scientific, eh? :p I was amazed that the patch was so well concealed until it started preening.

Nice series Loupey, you know me, i love to capture birds grooming and preening, youve done a good job IMO.

Thanks, Bev. You know with all the birding help I've been getting here, I think I've finally started sounding hafwey intellijant to my father-in-law who has always been an avid birder himself.

Do a google image search of "brood patch" they are very large!