Red-necked Phalarope (breeding female)

I'd always assumed I'd need to go to Alaska to get a shot of this bird in full breeding plumage, so I was thrilled to capture this frame just across the bay (San Francisco) from my San Mateo home. I'd found a group of 8 phalaropes while exploring the bayshore on my bicycle the day before, and I was stoked to find they'd remained overnight when I returned with my camera at sunrise following morning. I laid down in the goose-shit covered mud adjoining the small patch of marsh they preferred, and within ten minutes the birds were foraging twenty feet from me. This was one of the first frames I captured, the sun barely over the horizon and lighting the bird perfectly. The entire morning was incredible, and I walked out with two handfuls of frames of this beautiful little shorebird.

Hayward Regional Shoreline, Alameda County, California, 5/25/20
Canon 600mm f/4 IS II + 1.4x III on EOS 1DX Mark II
1/3200 at f/5.6, ISO 800