Bird Oddities – Page 21 – Feathered Photography

Short-eared Owl Tattoo – A Work In Progress

Something a little different from me this time… In the past I’ve had a wide variety of requests for use of my images, including such disparate projects as prints, magazine and book publications, non-profit scientific and educational organizations (which I nearly always allow without a fee), fancy rubber stamps, uses by painters and other artists as subjects for their work, an image to be lacquered into the top of the communal dining table of a new fire station in Temecula, California and several of my Northern Harrier (a type of hawk) images have been used in the AV8B Harrier (jump-jet) pilot training software at the Naval Air Weapons Station at China Lake, California. But a few weeks ago I got something new for me – a request to use one of my avian images for a very large, “photo – realistic” tattoo. Jenna, from New Zealand, contacted me and requested to use this image of a female Short-eared Owl in flight (with brood patch visible on the belly) as the basis for the tattoo. Her tattoo artist, Matt Jordan of Ship Shape Tattoo, Orewa, New Zealand, needed a high-resolution version of the image in order to get enough detail to make the very large tattoo photo-realistic. Even though this shot was taken in extremely low light and doesn’t have quite as much detail as most of my photos, in the end there was enough. Matt Jordan is apparently very talented and in high demand so it took Jenna several months to get the project started. It’s a long, drawn out and painful process. Jenna’s first session with Matt lasted for 6…

Juvenile Burrowing Owl Parallaxing

Parallax is the effect where the position or direction of an object appears to differ when viewed from different positions. When an observer moves, the apparent relative motion of several stationary objects against a background gives hints about their relative distance which the brain can interpret to provide absolute depth information. As you can imagine this can be very helpful to birds for flight and for judging prey position. The movement required comes automatically during flight but it can also be provided while perched by exaggerated movements of the head in all three dimensions. Tipping the head also provides cues by changing the relative position of the eyes to the object being viewed. Learning to interpret this information takes practice so many juvenile birds do just that, owls in particular. Techs for the following images – most were taken at 1/640 or 1/800, f/9, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in. All images presented in the order they were taken. Several years ago I spent a lot of time over several weeks photographing a family of Burrowing Owls along the causeway to Antelope Island. Their burrow was very close to the road and they became almost completely acclimated to traffic so I was able to observe and photograph many interesting behaviors of both juveniles and adults from my pickup. Here, this juvenile is simply ignoring me (for the sake of convenience I’ll refer to this bird as a male though I have no idea what sex it…

Nothing Wrong With A Butt Shot Now And Again…

This isn’t the sharpest image in my portfolio but it does intrigue me. A lot. Six days ago this Barn Owl made an unsuccessful plunge into the deep snow for a vole and soon after took off almost directly away from me. This is one of the images I got as it lifted off in the direction of its favorite hill-top perch – a “butt shot” to be sure but I’m fascinated by the wing angle and position. 1/3200, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in This shot caught the wings toward the end of the upstroke. The primary feathers at the end of the wings are in what appears to be an almost perfectly vertical position to allow for very little air resistance as they move to a higher position in preparation for the powered downstroke but the secondary feathers are pointed almost directly back at me. The skeletal structure of a bird’s wing is homologous (similar in position, structure, and evolutionary origin but not necessarily in function) to the forelimb of most other vertebrates (including humans) with a humerus, then radius and ulna, then metacarpals and finally phalanges at the end. Like humans, the joint between the radius/ulna and the metacarpals is the carpal or “wrist” joint (see here if you’re curious and/or confused by the anatomy). So the “wrist” is the joint between the primary and secondary wing feathers. Our wrist or carpal joint can be “bent” up or down and left or right but it cannot be rotated (try holding your…

Does Anyone Know What’s Wrong With The Eye Of This Northern Harrier?

It’s very cold here in northern Utah (8 degrees F. as I type) and there’s lots of snow on the ground – ideal conditions for photographing hunting Northern Harriers. And yesterday morning everything was covered with a thick layer of hoar-frost which turned the marshes into a frosty fairyland. I was able to get lots of shots of this particular bird and in the field I didn’t even notice that there was anything unusual about it. Most of the images were flight shots and there just isn’t time pay attention to detail when you’re concentrating so hard on keeping the bird in the frame and in focus. But when I got home and started reviewing my images I was taken aback. Something’s definitely going on with the right eye of this bird. At first I thought it might be just the closed nictitating membrane but I have dozens of shots of this bird and the eye is the same in all of them. It’s definitely not a normal membrane, if it’s the membrane at all. A better look at the right eye. This is probably the sharpest, most detailed image I was able to get of the bird. An extreme crop of the previous image to show the best detail I could manage. To my untrained eye it looks like there may be some kind of fungal growth in and around the eye that may have discolored the eye ring and nictitating membrane and closed the membrane permanently, but that’s only a guess….

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. …

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…

“Rushing” Western Grebes

The ritualized displays and courtship ceremonies of Western Grebes are among the most complex known in the bird world. One of them is called the “rushing ceremony” which includes 5 distinct phases – only one of which is actually referred to as “rushing”. Yesterday I finally was able to photograph this most dramatic part of the display and believe me it’s been a long time coming. Mia and I were photographing a pair of these grebes with chicks and though we both were aware of another small group of grebes a little further away I was concentrating so intently on those chicks that I didn’t notice what Mia noticed – that the behavior of two of those birds had suddenly changed. She said “they’re going to do something” so all I had time to do was quickly aim my lens at these birds and fire away. Without Mia I’d have missed the entire sequence. 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc When rushing, the two birds (usually a mated pair but two males may also do it to attract females) lunge forward and rise completely out of the water. 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc As their legs and feet start to churn at incredible speeds their bodies begin to become more vertical… 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc until the birds are almost completely vertical to the water and their feet are slapping the surface so fast (16-20 steps per second) that the slapping and splashing noise is loud and can be heard a great distance away. The…

Bill Deformities

I’m seeing more bill deformities “out there” than I used to and that disturbs me. The latest example was a Sage Thrasher we found on Antelope Island four days ago. This is what a normal bill on a Sage Thrasher looks like. Notice that the upper mandible is slightly longer than the lower one with a curved tip at the terminus and that both mandibles fit together tightly showing no evidence of a gap between them. But in this thrasher the upper mandible is significantly shorter than the lower and the curve of the two mandibles doesn’t match so they don’t fit together well, leaving a gap. This is definitely not a temporary, voluntary position of the bill as I have about a dozen shots of the bird over a period of about a minute that show the same thing. The two mandibles never fit together cleanly and the upper one is definitely shorter. With this head turn you can see the other side. I can only imagine how this would interfere with normal preening as the bird attempts to draw the individual feathers through the bill to lock the barbs together. An extreme crop of the previous image. Notice how the back of the mandibles touch each other and prevent the rest of the bill from coming together because their curves don’t match along the entire length of the bill. At first I thought that the end of the lower mandible looked damaged or eroded but perhaps there’s just something on the bill that…

The Return of Long-billed Curlews and Rhyncokinesis

Each day for the past several weeks while on our way out to the island either Mia or I will say to the other “I wonder if we’ll see or hear the curlews this morning”. For both of us the return of the curlews is a sure sign that true spring has finally arrived. And each morning we’ve been disappointed. Until yesterday! We first heard them while waiting for some magpies to return to their nest and then looked up and saw several flying toward us. 1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4 This bird is one of them – a truly unremarkable photograph except for its significance to us. It’s almost like this bird (and its companion) were flying over us to personally announce their return to us. The curlews are back – finally! 1/1600, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc It wasn’t long before we were able to find several curlews foraging on the ground and they even let us get close. This one is busy preening in the morning sun. 1/1600, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Rhyncokinesis (rhynco – upper beak or bill, kinesis – movement or motion) is the ability of some birds to bend or flex their upper bill. Only cranes, shorebirds, swifts and hummingbirds are known to be capable of doing so. The bill is made of a protein called keratin (like hair or fingernails) and it’s quite a remarkable feat to be able to control its shape to some degree. Notice in the photo above that the shapes…

Odd Behavior In A Young Male Northern Harrier

It’s likely that I’m more interested in bird behaviors than some of my readers – if so I hope you’ll bear with me through this post. Even though the light was terrible for photography much of the time, witnessing this odd behavior was a treat for me. As most folks who try to photograph harriers know, they’re generally an elusive quarry and difficult to get close to. Occasionally you may get a close fly-by if you’re lucky but yesterday I had an experience with a harrier that I had never seen before and I’ve spent a lot of time around harriers. Mia and I first found the bird (a young male just transitioning to adult plumage) perched close to the road and as we attempted to get close for some shots it lifted off, just as we expected. I assumed it was long gone as usually happens with these birds but that’s not how it turned out. 1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc As we were preparing to drive further down the road we noticed the harrier coming back and it landed quite close to us again. Very unusual, so we decided to hang around and see how the cards played out. 1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc The harrier began to call. Sometimes it sounded like the typical harrier call that I’ve heard so many times in the past but occasionally this bird sounded different – Mia thought it sounded almost like a parrot. 1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc It stayed on the same…

Red-tailed Hawk with Long-billed Hawk Syndrome

This morning I found this Red-tailed Hawk on a telephone pole near Grantsville, Utah. As soon as I looked at it through my lens I knew that something was wrong with the birds beak. A bit of research almost immediately turned up the probable culprit – Long-billed Hawk Syndrome. Birds with this condition have atypical uncontrolled growth of either or both upper and lower bills. Birds affected often have secondary infections in their bills. Since their bills are used for activities such as eating, preening, killing prey and feeding offspring the syndrome is extremely serious. Most birds with this condition die of starvation. The syndrome gets its name because most affected birds have been Red-tailed Hawks, though other species of raptors get the condition also, including Peregrine Falcons and Rough-legged Hawks. The first case of LBH Syndrome was reported in Washington state in 1997 and reports have been increasing since. This is what a normal Red-tailed Hawk’s bill looks like – quite a dramatic and obvious contrast to the diseased one. The cause of this condition is unknown, though research is ongoing. A sad situation for this poor bird. More info here. Ron Addendum: I posted one of these photos on a nature phography forum and a veterinarian with many years of experience with falconry birds has stated unequivocally that this hawks condition occurred because it was “kept jessed and tethered by someone who was totally ignorant of the necessity to keep the upper and lower bill trimmed to normal shape”. Whatever the true cause of the deformity, it’s…

Bald Eagle Nictitating Membrane

The nictitating membrane (nictitan) is a membrane or “third eyelid” found in some vertebrates that can be drawn across the eye for protection and to moisten and lubricate the surface of the eye. It is either translucent or semi-transparent so the animal maintains sight while it covers the eye. Birds, sharks and some reptiles have a fully functional nictitating membrane while in most mammals there is only a small vestigial remnant in the corner of the eye. However camels, polar bears, seals, aardvarks, marsupials and monotremes do have fully functional membranes. 1/2000, f/8. ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This nearly adult (head not yet completely white) Bald Eagle is neither tame or captive. But for several days in 2009, beginning on a bitterly cold Christmas morning, this adult adopted a favorite perch (a relatively short pole) that looked out over a pond with fish in it. The pole was so close to the road that I sometimes had to take off my teleconverter to get the entire bird in the frame. It warmed my heart that the eagle was so comfortable with me this close and that was a very good thing because Mia and I almost froze to death over the many hours of photographing this magnificent bird. This is the normal appearance of the Bald Eagle’s eye. In adult birds, eye color is typically some shade of yellow with a distinctly visible pupil (though juvenile birds have much darker eyes). 1/2000, f/8. ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc But every few seconds the bird swipes the nictitating membrane across the…

Angry Barn Swallow

As I approached the parking lot at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge just before taking the loop road there were myriads of swallows flying around as per usual in spring and early summer. I noticed this Barn Swallow on a post and decided to take a few shots. It let me approach very closely and I didn’t know why at first but it soon became very apparent that this bird was in distress. If you look closely at the image above you’ll notice that there is “something” connecting the tips of a tail feather and one of the primary wing feathers that prevented this bird from flying and as a result it was a very unhappy and frustrated bird! I photographed this swallow for over 10 minutes as it struggled to solve its incomprehensible problem. It would alternately attempt to break the connection by raising and extending its wings and… trying to reach the problem area with its beak, which it just couldn’t quite do. At times its apparent anger and frustration (anthropomorphic of me, I know) became quite evident as it would momentarily cease struggling and just sit there and call out pitifully. But eventually the connection between the feathers broke and the bird flew off instantly – so fast that I missed the shot. I still don’t know for sure what substance caused this problem. It has been suggested by others that it could have been spider silk. I’ve also wondered about the possibility of sticky tree…

White Pelican Stretching Pouch in Flight.

American White Pelicans are known to do some pretty strange things with their pouch – one of them is pouch stretching (I’ve been unable to find an official term for the behavior). A four year old image – I no longer have the original file so can’t access exif data They pull their head back and force their very flexible pouch down over their neck and upper chest in a process that looks, well.. bizarre. I don’t think this behavior is particularly unusual as I’ve seen and photographed it several times. According to Birds of North America Online the function of this display is “uncertain”. Canon 7D, 1/5000, f/6.3, ISO 500 However, these birds are also fully capable of pulling the bottom of their pouch up above the level of the lower mandibles without having to pull the pouch down over their neck. I don’t fully understand how they’re able to do this since the pouch itself is non-muscular. Internet research on the subject has been unproductive. I assume there must be some form of bony or cartilaginous rod that extends from the throat area down the middle of the bottom of the pouch about half way to the tip of the bill. With muscular control of the base of that extension in the throat area they would be able to raise the bottom of the pouch above “horizontal”. I’ve seen them do it twice – the first time without a camera while the bird was perched. But the second time, a couple of weeks ago, it was done in flight which…

A Loggerhead Shrike, a Spider and Spit

A few days ago Mia and I found this Loggerhead Shrike sitting prettily on a dried sunflower on Antelope Island. The bird was using the sunflower as a hunting perch. 1/1600, f/8, ISO 500 I’ve always been amazed by the incredible eyesight of many bird species. This shrike somehow spotted a spider crawling through the thick grass about 20 feet away from where it was perched and immediately flew down to grab it. 1/1600, f/7.1, ISO 500 It was a relatively small spider and I have no idea how the shrike was able to see it in all the dense grass. Even though the background is busy here I still liked the shot for the interesting look at both the spider and the tongue of the shrike. It’s my presumption from looking at this photo that the saliva of the shrike is viscous and sticky, enabling the prey to stay attached to the tongue during the very fast process of pulling the spider to the back of the throat with the tongue. 1/1600, f/7.1, ISO 500 A heavily cropped, close-up view of the same image provides a clue. You can see that there’s a sheet of saliva stretched between the bottom of the tongue and the floor of the lower mandible and it does appear to be quite viscous. I had no idea that it would be so “juicy” in there. Nothing earth-shattering here, just some avian trivia in a photo that I found interesting (yes, my interests can be…

Category: Bird Oddities