American Dipper Photo

An American Dipper, dipping, of course!!!  The birds I watched on this day seemed to use three primary foraging techniques.  Often, they'd land in very shallow water and simply dip their heads down to the bottom to gather food items, as with this photo.  They would also land in deeper water and actively swim underwater in search of food, and would occasionally land on the shoreline immediately adjacent to the water and forage directly in the above water vegetation.

Taken on July 8th, 2008 below Roughlock Falls in the Black Hills of South Dakota, with Canon 20D, 400 5.6L.