The American Dipper, or the Water Ouzel, as it is sometimes called, is a real specialist...and one of my favorite birds. It walks along the bottom of fast moving streams, grasping the rocks with it's long toes, looking for aquatic insects and fish. It is so wholly adapted to this life-style that it's feathers are oily to retard the absorption of water, it can see underwater through nictitating eyelids, and the bird has scales that close it's nostrils when submerged! So specialized are these birds, they are North America's only aquatic songbird. The dipper, as Scottish poet Kathleen Jamie writes, "knows the depth of the river yet sings of it on land." Take the time to watch this bird. It's a joy to see it bob up and down, as it searches for it's next meal, both in and out of the water.