It’s often a fool’s errand to assign motivation to unexplained bird behaviors so in this case I won’t make any claims. But I have to wonder if this young owl might have been experimenting with its eyesight.
Little quirks in bird behavior often pique my curiosity even though I know there’ll likely never be a definitive explanation for them.
This cooperative adult Red-tailed Hawk with prey was a huge challenge under difficult conditions yesterday morning.
I’ve been yammering for years about the advantages to bird photographers of being familiar with the behaviors of our subjects. Here’s yet another example.
Three days ago I found a covey of California Quail down by the Jordan River. I watched them forage for food for a while and then something interesting happened.
I’m speaking figuratively in my title of course. Literally they were doing exactly that.
In almost ten years of regular trips to Antelope Island (roughly 600-700 trips total) I’ve never had a wildlife encounter like this one!
This hawk actually expelled two pellets and I was able to photograph (and dissect) both of them.
Occasionally the frozen moments in my photographs allow me to see something that really piques my curiosity. And makes me wonder about the relationships between natural selection, behaviors and structural adaptations.
I know of no bird that is more inclined to steal food from other members of its own species than Pied-billed Grebes.
