Behaviors – Page 99 – Feathered Photography

Brood Patch In A Female Short-eared Owl

One of the primary functions of feathers is insulation and they’re very good at preventing heat loss. But this efficiency presents a problem – how to keep the egg(s) sufficiently warm during incubation, since feathers act as a barrier to heat transfer from parent to eggs. Typical bird body temperature is about 104 degrees F. and the ideal incubation temperature for their eggs is very close to normal human body temperature – 98.6 degrees F. That dilemma has been solved by most bird species through the evolution of the “brood patch” – an area of belly skin that loses its feathers near the end of the egg-laying period. As the feathers are lost, supplementary blood vessels engorge the skin of the “patch” so that hot blood is brought to the surface. Amazingly, the parent can even shut down blood flow to this region when that bird is off the nest. When the incubating parent returns to the eggs for incubation, he/she typically goes through settling movements that bring the brood patch into gentle contact with the eggs. The patch may be large or small, depending on a variety of factors including how many eggs are incubated. Some species have a single patch in the middle of the belly, others may have one each side or even three. Typically the patch is difficult to observe in wild birds, particularly in flight but I have several images of a female Short-eared Owl where it is visible. This female had two chicks that she was trying to keep warm during a typically cold Montana spring. The male…

Mean-fighting Coots

American Coots are, without question, the most aquatic, common and widely distributed rail species in North America. Clumsy and awkward fliers, they require long running take-offs to become airborne but they are skilled swimmers – largely due to their lobately webbed toes. And oh, are they ever ornery! But first, allow me to make a few excuses… These images of fighting coots were taken several years ago when I was relatively new to photography. My settings weren’t particularly appropriate so I’m not including them here. And most of these photos were shot in JPEG rather than RAW, so my processing options were extremely limited when I tried to adjust exposure, so the frustratingly white bill is pretty bright in a few of these images. This is one of the aggressive postures used by males to challenge other males. Whenever I see this I know that all hell is about to break loose and I’d better be ready. In my experience, coots have two primary fighting strategies. One is for each bird to lie on their backs in the water while propped up by their wings and tails and strike out at each other with their feet and claws. In this fighting position, their defense is to try to grasp the opposing birds feet. Here we get a good look at those unusual lobed toes. If they become locked together they then fight with their bills. The second fighting strategy uses bills and wings as weapons. If one bird gains the advantage it often tries to force its opponent underwater. The losing bird…

Lark Sparrows – A Unique Mating Behavior

Back on May 25 of this year, on this post about Lark Sparrows, I made the following statement at the end of the post: “Now that I have some decent images of this species my next goal with them is to capture some of their unique behaviors. These birds often pass a twig from the male to the female during copulation (an impressive display of multitasking and concentration). And they do a turkey-like strut during courtship. I would love to capture either behavior.” In your comments, several of you gave me encouragement in meeting that goal and 11 days later I was at least partly able to do so. These are those images. A couple of these photos may be a little “clinical” for some, but to me it’s all behavior and it’s all interesting. Techs for all images were: 1/4000 or 1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc The courtship of Lark Sparrows includes behaviors found in no other songbirds. Prior to actual mating, the male struts like a turkey, with its tail sticking up to show off its white tail spots and its wings drooping to the ground. Then, before the male mounts her, he picks up a twig (or twigs) which he passes to the female just before copulation. When mating is complete (they may mate or attempt to mate up to 20 times in 3.5 minutes) the female often flies off with the twig. The courtship had already begun when I approached this mated pair. Normally, this species doesn’t allow me to get this close…

Northern Harriers Hunting

It’s getting to be what I call “harrier time” here in northern Utah so I thought I’d do a significant post on the species. For me, watching these birds hunt is absolutely mesmerizing and I could do it for hours. And I have – many, many times. But before I get into hunting I’d like to cover some basics on telling the sexes and ages apart. Sexual dimorphism in harriers is exceptional among birds of prey – telling adult males from adult females is easy because their colors are so dramatically different. But because juveniles of either sex strongly resemble adult females, that distinction becomes very tricky and causes a lot of confusion. So, here’s a primer: Adult males – gray above, mostly white below, black wing tips, lemon-yellow eyes Adult females – brown above, buffy with brown streaks below, lemon-yellow eyes (but in my experience, the eyes of adult females tend to be less bright than those of adult males) Juvenile of both sexes – similar to adult female but darker chocolate-brown above and strongly rufous (reddish) below Juvenile male – pale, greenish-yellow eyes Juvenile female – dark, chocolate-brown eyes All sexes and ages have the unique facial disc (ruff) characteristic of harriers. It’s not as prominent as it is in many owls but it can clearly be seen in this image. Its function is the same as it is in owls – to direct sound to the ears. Most hawks hunt almost exclusively by sight but because of their excellent hearing, thanks largely to the facial disc, harriers depend at least…

Rough-legged Hawk “Playing”

This post is about behavior. Please don’t expect high quality images… Last March I found this juvenile (I believe) Rough-legged Hawk along the Antelope Island causeway on a cold morning after a light snowfall. It was perched on a windrow of debris consisting mostly of piles of old brine fly pupae casings. For a while the bird seemed content to simply rest and watch me. But soon it apparently got bored… and walked about two feet to my right to investigate a clump of fly casings (red arrow) that had been cemented together by melting snow that had re-frozen during the night. The hawk reached over to grasp the clump with its talons… retrieved the clump,… transferred it to its beak and then instantly tossed it to the ground. I assumed that was that, figuring the bird had thought it might be something edible, then discarded it for good when it wasn’t. But that wasn’t what happened. The hawk grabbed the clump with its talons once again… and then seemed to contemplate for a few seconds about just what to do next. Which turned out to be something like “give the clump a toss and see where it lands”. The hawk immediately started walking over to where the clump had landed behind the mound of fly casings, where it can’t be seen in this image. It used its wings for a little more stability as it negotiated the hill of debris. …

A Gluttonous Pied-billed Grebe

Pied-billed Grebes are opportunistic feeders so they’re not very fussy about what they eat, but they do seem particularly fond of crayfish, fish and frogs (including tadpoles). Before consuming crayfish and frogs (both are often too large to swallow whole) they rip them apart in an incredibly rapid shaking frenzy that tears off limbs and pieces before they’re swallowed (something I’ve documented here with a frog). They have very strong jaw muscles and before swallowing fish they repeatedly pinch them with their beak, which kills them by damaging their internal organs. Occasionally, when choosing prey, their eyes are bigger than their stomachs – as you’re about to see. (all images are presented in the order that they occurred) All images presented in this post had the following techs: f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, shutter speed ranged from 1/2000 to 1/1250 Last winter, I noticed this grebe just after it surfaced with a fish. A very large fish, at least relative to the size of the bird who must now swallow it. (I’ve never seen one tear a fish into smaller pieces before eating it). As a side-note, I liked the “extra eye” in the reflection at the bottom of the frame. I thought this image would give the viewer a good sense for the size of the fish – especially its width! But the poor bird didn’t have any time at all to get the meal down before other grebes rushed in to try to steal the fish. The competition at times like this is…

Clark’s Grebes – Parents Feeding Fish To Some Very Excited Chicks

This past June I spent lots of time with Western and Clark’s Grebes as they were raising their families. The two species are quite similar but the adult birds in this post can be recognized as Clark’s Grebes by their bright yellow-orange bills and the fact that their eyes are surrounded by white plumage, rather than black. 1/2000. f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light This female of a mated pair was fishing for her family as the male back-brooded two chicks (the sexes take turns with each role). I happened to catch her just as she emerged from the water with a fish and shook the water off. I wish I had better eye contact and more room around the grebe, but this image is full frame. I include it here because it’s the logical beginning of this “fish story”. 1/2000. f/8, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light Seconds later she swam over to deliver the fish to her family. Sometimes the fish will be given to the brooding parent, who may eat it or give it to a chick. Other times, the fishing parent gives it directly to one of the youngsters. Either way, if the chicks are hungry they become very excited and aggressive in their attempts to be the one who gets the fish. Before the young birds saw breakfast coming their way, they were tucked down peacefully under each wing with only their heads and necks sticking out. All that changed in an instant. 1/2000….

An Amazingly Resilient One-legged Ibis

Last week I came across this one-legged White-faced Ibis at Farmingtom Bay. Normally, these birds feed by slowly wading through the water and locating their invertebrate prey by tactile probing of the muddy substrate. Their long, recurved and extremely sensitive bill is an ideal tool for this purpose. But this bird, of course, is unable to wade. So it would stand in one spot for a few seconds while feeding and then jump to the next spot with great effort. The problem it had with this method was maintaining balance as it was landing in the new spot, since it couldn’t put down the missing leg for support. So, as it landed it would use that long bill as a sort of substitute for the missing leg and foot, thus gaining an additional balancing and support point in the mud. Here it has just regained balance and is closing its wings and pulling its long bill off of the mud. Perhaps what the bird was doing can be better visualised from this one photo, where you can tell from the turbulence around the right leg that the ibis has just landed in this spot a split second before and that it is using its long bill to brace itself in order to regain balance. And here I caught the ibis just as it was “landing” on a new feeding spot – the water is actually fairly deep here. I hope this post isn’t seen as much…

An Incredible Experience With A Prairie Falcon And A Hapless Duck

This morning on Antelope Island was a photographic bust – heavy snow coming down most of the time and no light to speak of. So finally, after several hours of hoping the clouds would clear, we put our tails between our legs and headed for home. Talk about perfect timing! We’d traversed about half the causeway when the clouds parted, light blossomed and a serendipitous adult Prairie Falcon appeared, hunting for ducks. The falcon ambushed this male Northern Shoveler just as I was getting my pickup in position, so I missed that shot but this one was taken within a second or two of the strike. The duck is bleeding heavily. It struggled for a minute or so, and then died in the water. After the attack, the falcon would perch along the causeway for a short period, then take off and fly over the duck. This was done repeatedly. With my 500mm plus tc I could never get both the duck and the falcon in the image – this is as close as I came. 1/1600, f/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in Here, the falcon is perched to watch the duck out on the water. 1/2500, f/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in I had a difficult time locking focus on the falcon as it buzzed the duck because the textured water background was so close to the bird. I kept getting sharp shots of…

Western Grebe Chick Reacts To Food

I’ve always enjoyed spending time with Western Grebes but until this past summer I’ve had very little success in photographing parents back-brooding their chicks. In June at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge my luck with this behavior changed and I was able to get quite a few nice images of the chicks on the backs of the parents over many days. Here, two chicks wait patiently on the back of one of the parents while the other one attempts to catch fish for breakfast. The fishing parent would feed small fish to both chicks and to the brooding parent. The chicks watch attentively for the adult to emerge from the nearby water with something to eat. I was always torn about what to photograph – the parent with the fish or the reactions of the chicks to approaching food. In this case I chose the latter. Here, the chick on the right has just spotted its parent come up out of the water from behind with a small fish and is beginning to react. Usually, both chicks were hungry and competed for the food but this time the youngster on the left was full and not interested in anything to eat. But the chick on the right didn’t know that and went into full competetive begging mode. I always enjoyed watching these reactions to food. Ron

American Kestrel Eating “Grit”

I don’t have any beautiful photos today but I do have some interesting behavior. Yesterday morning, I came across this female American Kestrel sitting in the middle of a large, isolated, gravel parking lot/camping area on Antelope Island. I thought it was an unusual resting place for a kestrel and as I approached her in my pickup I was even more intrigued when she didn’t immediately fly off, as this species typically does. She repeatedly took a couple of wingbeats and flew a few feet, but never far. She was, for some reason, reluctant to leave and at first I couldn’t figure out why. I was eventually able to work my way close enough to her to see that she was swallowing small stones from the gravel parking lot. This was a behavior that I’d never seen before in a raptor, though I’ve often seen it in other birds. As a biologist, I’m aware of the general function of the gizzard in birds – that seed eating birds swallow “grit” to act as teeth (birds have no true teeth, presumably a weight saving adaptation for flight) within the grinding gizzard so they can physically break down their hard food and prepare it for chemical digestion. And it had been my understanding that raptors don’t consume grit because they don’t eat seeds. The flesh they consume is easily digested and doesn’t need to be physically broken down first. So why is this little falcon swallowing small stones? I decided to ask Mark Runnels, an extremely knowledgeable master falconer from Oklahoma and…

Delivering Food For A Family Of Short-eared Owls

I try not to play favorites when it comes to bird subjects for my photography but Short-eared Owls would have to be near the top of any such list I might make. I’ve had some luck with them here in Utah but my favorite area to photograph them is in southwest Montana. This series is from the summer of 2010 in Beaverhead County. I spent several days watching and photographing a male owl hunt voles and then bring them in for his family (female and two chicks) at the nest at the base of a sagebrush. I thought it might be interesting for some to see a full series of shots (of those I kept) as the male approached the nest with a vole. 1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 800, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, shot from pickup window, natural light Like me, this male was a creature of habit. I would watch him hunting far off in the distance and when he was successful he would always repeat the same pattern. He would bring the vole in to the vicinity of the nest and then land on one of two favorite perches for a short time before delivering the vole to his family. This small sagebrush was one of those favorite perches – the other was a metal post. Here, he is in the process of landing and you can see the dark vole in his left foot. He always carried the vole to the perch in his left foot (as I’ve documented here) and always transferred…

Western Grebes: A Bizarre Behavior Finally Explained

Anyone who has spent a significant amount of time observing Western Grebes (or their close relatives, Clark’s Grebes) has undoubtedly observed this curious behavior multiple times. But before I continue, a few words of explanation are in order. Grebes are unique to most other water birds in two ways that are related to this behavior: 1.) their legs are attached to their bodies at the rear, rather than underneath and 2.) the toes of grebes are lobed instead of webbed. Having legs attached at the rear allows for efficient swimming but causes extreme clumsiness while walking – they rarely venture on to land, but when they do they often fall down after just a few steps. This leg attachment position is so distinctive of grebes that the genus name of four of the North American grebe species is Podiceps (from “podicis” meaning anus or vent and “pes” meaning foot) – in other words, “anus foot”. (and yes, I’m having a hard time resisting a joke line or two with that phrase…) Recent experimental work with grebes has demonstrated that the lobes on the toes function much like the hydrofoil blades of a propeller. Ok, with that background, on to this strange behavioral quirk of the Western Grebe. Without warning, and for no apparent reason, they stick one of their legs out behind them. With those unusual feet it can look pretty silly. Sometimes they’ll do a simultaneous wing stretch, but rarely. Occasionally they’ll hold the foot high in the air for quite a while. That can look even sillier. Even the chicks do it….

Red-tailed Hawk Rejecting Intestines Of Prey

Many raptors will methodically and deliberately remove the intestinal tract of their prey before consuming it, a behavior that I’ve photographed several times with different species. In my research I’ve never been able to find out exactly why this is done – there are multiple theories but apparently no definitive answers. Maybe they tend to reject them because they “taste bad”, or because they “harbor harmful bacteria” or because they are filled with contents that are of “low food value”. Perhaps it’s a combination of factors. Recently, to add to the confusion, I’ve come up with my own working theory. The intestines of vertebrates, particularly mammals such as the rodents that many of these raptors regularly prey on, tend to be infested with a variety of parasites – including worms such as intestinal roundworms, flukes and tapeworms. The life cycles of many of these parasites are convoluted and complex but some of them lay thousands of eggs into the hosts intestinal contents every day. Eating those contents could have unpleasant consequences for predators so it seems logical to me that selection pressure might preserve such a behavior. 1/1000. f/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not set up, baited or called in While I was in SW Montana a few weeks ago this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk flew to a nearby post with a vole and started to eat it. It began by opening the vole and then removing and swallowing several desirable morsels. Here you see an errant feather floating away in the breeze. 1/1000. f/5.6, ISO 640, 500…

Swainson’s Hawk Regurgitating Pellets

Western Montana has been awash in Swainson’s Hawks this summer. From the Canadian border (Glacier County) to the southern border with Idaho (Beaverhead County) I found them in significantly larger numbers than I have seen in previous summers. I hope this very unscientific observation is accurate and that it bodes them well as a species because their numbers have been declining to the point where they are listed as a Species of Special Concern in several western states. 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4 I found this handsome juvenile this past week along a county road in Beaverhead County. At first it was very relaxed and assumed this clenched fist pose that is so typical of many buteo species when they’re at ease and resting. 1/1600, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4 But soon it began to arch its neck and I recognized that it was about to attempt to expel a pellet. I had already taken my tc off in anticipation of take-off so I decided to leave it off because so often in the past I’ve missed the falling pellet as it dropped out of frame at the bottom. 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4 Then, with the nictitating membrane pulled over the eye, the bird began to retch. These few images showing pellet ejection may give the viewer the impression that it all happened very quickly. It didn’t. From beginning to end the whole process took over four minutes. During that time there were alternating periods of retching and resting and it didn’t look to be a…

Category: Behaviors