When a parent Barn Swallow stuffs food into the mouth of one of its fledglings it usually comes off flawlessly. But not always…
1/4000, f/7.1, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in
Yesterday morning I spent 25 minutes photographing this young Barn Swallow at Bear River MBR as it was begging for food and being fed by its parents. At first it was on a different perch but as much as it begged its parents never brought it food there so it moved to this perch and the feeding frenzy began. Usually the process was amazingly quick and I was lucky to get a single shot while the beak of the parent was inside the mouth of the youngster. But this time the process seemed to take slightly longer and…
1/4000, f/7.1, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in
I actually got two images as the parent tried to stuff an insect down the youngster’s gullet. It wasn’t until I arrived home and looked at the photos on my monitor that I noticed that this time things didn’t go as planned.
1/4000, f/7.1, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in
As the parent pulled away the insect dropped to the ground and the fledgling went without. To confirm that it was actually an insect and not just a stray feather or something else…
I performed a huge crop on the same image. Yup, it’s a flying insect of some kind. I love the forlorn look on the face of the young bird as it watches its snack fall to the ground.
1/5000, f/7.1, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in
I found this feeding process to be very difficult to photograph. I needed high shutter speeds and as much depth of field as I could get but the varying shadows in the background combined with the swaying perch meant that my shutter speed fluctuated wildly. And usually there was at least one significant flaw in the image – clipped body parts or shaded faces or no catch lights or backs turned to me or wings in front of faces. The list was endless.
But occasionally things worked out. In this image, taken on the very next feeding trip, I like the light (mostly), the postures of both birds and the behavior.
I made some mistakes during this session that I won’t repeat – among them the fact that I shot with my teleconverter attached for much too long which resulted in more images with clipped body parts than was necessary.
Live and learn…
Ron
I really like these shots – I know I’ve not had the experience of seeing feeding close up the way they show. I’ve seen Kestrels hand off prey to a mate or chick, and from a distance we got to watch an Osprey feeding its young as we were eating dinner at a restaurant one evening this summer. The latter was an especially wonderful experience – it felt very intimate, even from a distance. Getting to watch these Barn Swallows must have been a wonderful experience.
“Getting to watch these Barn Swallows must have been a wonderful experience.”
It was exactly that, Susan. Thank you.
The young un might look forlorn, but the adult looks (to my anthormorphic eye) resigned. All that work to be done again. And again…
It made me tired (and hungry) just watching them, EC.
Stunning images Ron, I take my bow!!!
Thanks a lot, Butch.
Great series. Love the look on the baby when its’ snack fell to the ground!!
Thanks, Ellen.
Fantastic! Now I have proof swallows perch on something other than utility wires!
Superb balancing act, Ron, between enough DOF, sufficient shutter speed, framing, catching the feeding in progress – really nice!
A “balancing act” it truly was, Wally. As you know, bird photography is often a bushel of trade-offs. Thank you.
As a bird rehabber – including Barn and Cliff swallows – it is a delight to see the feedings happening out in nature, by a parent, as it ideally should be – rather than on the end of tweezers! Thank you Ron, for this wonderful peek into these intimate moments. I can attest to how quickly the parents come and go with food, so these shots are truly amazing!
Deborah, The work and dedication involved when rehabbers tend to these young birds must seem endless to them. My hat is off to you and all the others who do this work. Thank you.
What wonderful images. Where I volunteer with passerines we have swifts and swallows that the interns have to feed. They don’t do much better then these bird parents and they are sitting down not trying to feed from a moving perch. Thank you for taking the time to sort through all your images to show us human animals the difficulties bird parents have. Wonderful.
Diana, I’m “sorting through” these images right now – what a pain! I took over 2300 photos yesterday morning (many of them were of these swallows) so it’s an intimidating task. Image culling and root canals – two of my favorite things!
Well, I would say you did extremely well Ron. You took on a very difficult task and theses shots are fantastic!
Yes, I know about clipped body parts, but you got the actual feeding behavior and this particular situation down pat.
Well done from me!!
Thank you very much, Dick.
I wonder if the insect got a second chance..or if it was DOA. I raised a Barn Swallow and got pretty darned good at snatching flies out of the air…sure was glad to see it go!!! These are amazing shots…everything happens so fast with them. I love the almost metallic iridescent blues and the softer rusty colors of these graceful zoomers.
Patty, I can’t even imagine raising a swallow – so many insects to catch!!!
I was 12…that helped a lot….baby Barn Swallows are insatiable!!! Fortunately, there were lots of flies that summer…and other insects, but I sure got sick of that bird in a hurry! My sisters helped.
I am speechless.
Very very well done.
Congratulations Ron.
Thank you, Jorge. I actually thought of you as I was writing my text and putting in my image techs – thinking you might wonder why I used such high shutter speeds. I like the fact that you pay so much attention to camera settings…
I did not wonder about the high shutter speed because I know from my own experience that swallows are very fast and unpredictable flyers.
I only have two acceptable images of swallows and both were taken only after I bought the Canon 7D Mark II. That shutter speed is really impressive.
I couldn’t use my Mark II for most of the morning a couple of days ago because I’d moved a switch, didn’t know it, and couldn’t figure out why my camera wasn’t functioning properly. So I had to switch to my old 7D for several hours. What a difference! I missed so many things but chief among them was the much faster and more accurate focusing on the Mark II. I missed many flight shots with the 7d that I’m sure I’d have been able to get with the Mark II.
Don’t get me wrong. I’ve loved my 7D’s over the years but their age is certainly showing now…
Fabulous series. The lost snack is indeed priceless!
Thanks very much, Arwen.