In this neck of the woods Ring-necked Pheasants start feeling frisky about this time of year. Territories are being established, hormones flowing and feathers flying. When fighting, these birds flutter up against each other breast to breast, bite each other’s wattles and sometimes make high leaps toward each other using claws, bills and spurs. It can be quite dramatic.
Just as the sun came over the mountains I pulled into a gravel hunter’s parking lot at the refuge and noticed these two birds going at it. I assumed they wouldn’t let me get close enough for quality photos but they were so intent on their battle that they mostly ignored me and I was able to get just close enough.
1/640, f/9, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc
With the low light I was fighting for both shutter speed and depth of field and was pleasantly surprised to get both birds sharp at these settings. I’m always very happy to get behavioral shots like this, busy background or not.
Ron
i breed ringneck pheasants and this shot of them is of my top. they are nice quality roosters. you are very lucky to have even seen two at such quality of these
Thanks Brad. I appreciate your knowledgeable comment on the condition of these pheasants.
Nice one Ron!
It’s a beautiful shot. I’ve never seen those before.
Actually, I am not into hunting. Never have hunted and don’t intend to start. I wasn’t even thinking about that aspect when I commented about the image looking nice on a magazine cover. It was meant only as a compliment on the photo. But I understand where you are coming from.
Thank you Tana, Elephant’s Child and Bob. Yes Tana, these pheasants certainly do sparkle in the sun when the light is right, though that wasn’t the case here. Bob – with some of the “hunting” related things going on around here this winter I’m not much in the mood to promote the activity at the moment, which is a shame in some ways because I’m not really anti-hunting. At least I wasn’t… But thanks very much for the compliment on my image.
Wow, if that isn’t a quality photo, I don’t know what is. Excellent. It seems that a hunting magazine would pick up that one for a cover. Actually, I don’t find the background too busy, but just a nice bokeh.
How could you not like it? Thanks Ron.
I hadn’t seen pheasants for years but my last trip out to the GSL I actually saw a couple. Thanks for the pic, it brings back fond memories of wet English mornings and pheasants sparkling in the sun.