Category: Bird Oddities

Bathing Cinnamon Teal/Green-winged Teal hybrid

Though bathing is a common activity for waterfowl it can make for some interesting photographs.  I found this bird at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge at the end of May last year.    Cinnamon Teal x Green-winged Teal Hybrid male While I was processing some of the images I noticed the unusual crescent-shaped marking running through the eye to the back of the head that is typical of the Green-winged Teal.  I asked several very knowledgeable birders about this bird and they think this is a CT/GWT hybrid, which apparently is quite unusual.       Red eye looking at you through a layer of water While bathing he would repeatedly dunk his head and shoulders under water  and then lift them up, which would roll water over its back and wings.  An interesting process to watch and photograph at such close range.   Here he’s looking at me through a layer of water over his head and eye as he brings his head out of the water.       Forcing water over the back   Here’s the water on the back.        Washing the back feathers Then he would shake vigorously which would wash the back and upper wing feathers and send water droplets flying.       Rearranging the wing feathers After so much vigorous activity the feathers, particularly those in the wing, needed rearranging to put them in their proper places.       Preening after the bath  Then came the preening.  Lots of it.  Here he is grooming individual breast/lower neck feathers.       After the bath And here…

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Canvasback – Feeding and Fighting Behavior

In April of 2008 I photographed some interesting Canvasback feeding and fighting behaviors at a local pond.   At the time I was still a relative novice at bird photography so I’ll say up front that this blog post is more about the behaviors than it is about image quality.  The almost white plumage and dark head made for a tricky exposure for a beginner and there was a significant issue with specular highlights caused by reflections off of the shiny mud.      Dive, eyes open On this day there was one drake feeding quite close to me and I was very interested in the whole process.  He would continually dive down to the muck at the bottom of the pond and come up with his head completely covered in thick dark mud.  Sometimes he would dive with his eyes open, like this.       Dive, eyes closed And other times he would dive with his eyes closed.  Either way, mud and grit in the eyes never seemed to be a problem for him.       Ol’ Muddy Head 1 When he would emerge, this is what he would look like.      Ol’ Muddy Head 2  And this.  It never failed – a true mud facial.  Canvasbacks are often referred to as the “aristocrats of ducks” but it’s hard to look very aristocratic with a face full of mud.      Shakin’ the mud off Occasionally he would try to shake as much of the mud off as possible but it never seemed to change the look of him…

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Why Grebes Eat Feathers

Grebes, as a group, are known for eating feathers – usually their own.  The obvious question is – why?  There would be virtually no nutritional value in a feather.   Clark’s Grebe eating a feather I’ve photographed four species of grebes – Western Grebe, Clarks Grebe (these two are very similar), Pied-billed Grebe and Eared Grebe.  I’ve been able to document feather eating in all but the Eared Grebe.     Western Grebe parent feeding feather to young Over a period of perhaps a half hour I watched this adult feed several feathers to the chicks, who seemed almost as eager to consume the feathers as they did the fish provided by the parents.      Western Grebe chick reaching for a feather from its parent  Feathers are fed to the young almost immediately after hatching.  In fact, feathers are very often the first item eaten by newly hatched chicks of many grebe species. The purpose(s) of feather eating is unproven but evidence suggests that the behavior has these benefits for the birds.  Some of the ingested feathers form a plug in the pylorus, between the stomach and small intestine, which acts as a strainer to keep fish bones in the stomach long enough to be completely digested.  Most swallowed feathers end up in the stomach lumen, mixed with food.  They eventually (along with any indigestible matter) form pellets that are ejected through the mouth.  The continuous passage of these pellets through the upper digestive system minimizes the buildup of a variety of parasites that are very common there and plague grebes.    Pied-billed…

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Red-winged Blackbird With a Crossed Bill

  This morning while out photographing birds at a local wildlife refuge I came across this Red-winged Blackbird with a strongly crossed bill, which of course is not typical of the species.  I’ve seen a few mildly crossed bills in this and other species in the past but never one quite this pronounced in a species where it isn’t “normal”.   Red-winged Blackbird with a crossed bill, perched on curley dock    There are species of birds in North America that have crossed bills as a species trait – the Red Crossbill and the White-winged Crossbill.  Their crossed bills are an adaptation for extracting seeds from cones.  Seeing this RWBB with a crossed bill naturally got me thinking about evolution.  Variations occur throughout nature since each individual inherits a different combination of genes from its parents.  This  particular variation would likely be selected against in RWBB’s and would not persist since they do not typically pry seeds from cones.  However, one can see how this same variation in the ancestors of todays crossbills would be the genetic fuel for the crossed bill trait they all exhibit today.  Ron  

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