Rufous Hummingbirds – They’re Already Gone, At Least Mine Are
I always miss the hummingbirds when they head south for the winter but this year I’m going to have a harder time of it than usual.
Tag: beetle
Gray Catbird Interaction
Juvenile Mountain Bluebird Exploring A Gnarly Old Fence Post
The combination of innocence, curiosity and exuberance in very young birds can be fun to watch, if difficult to explain.
Male Western Tanager – With Prey And Without
Western Tanager With A Bug
The tanagers often manipulated their insect prey in their bills for quite a while before gulping it down and I wondered why
Western Kingbirds Putting A Poor Beetle Through Hell
Western Kingbird Delivering A Cricket To A Hungry Mouth
It isn’t easy to get two birds sharp at these focal lengths and when one of them is in flight the degree of difficulty increases exponentially.
The Western Kingbird and the Beetle
This will be another behavioral post – yes I am fascinated by interesting behaviors, perhaps overly so… I found this Western Kingbird hunting from a barbed wire perch which is quite typical for the species. It was so focused on its prey that it let me get quite close so I was able to get better detail of the feeding behavior than I normally do. 1/500, f/8, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc The kingbird has spotted prey on the ground 1/1250, f/8, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc so it flew down to retrieve it. In this case it happened to be a beetle. You can see it clinging upside down to the darker diagonal twig just in front of the bird. 1/1250, f/8, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Here’s a highly cropped version of the previous image to show the beetle better. 1/1250, f/8, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc The bird grabbed the beetle but as you can see it had reached “through” the twig to get it 1/1250, f/8, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc so it got more than it bargained for. The end of the twig broke off and wedged between the beetles abdomen and the upper mandible. 1/1000, f/8, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc So it flew back to its wire perch and tried to figure out what to do about the dilemma. It actually spent about 15 seconds just sitting there and staring at what was in its…
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Gray Catbird Interaction
Juvenile Mountain Bluebird Exploring A Gnarly Old Fence Post
The combination of innocence, curiosity and exuberance in very young birds can be fun to watch, if difficult to explain.
Male Western Tanager – With Prey And Without
Western Tanager With A Bug
The tanagers often manipulated their insect prey in their bills for quite a while before gulping it down and I wondered why
Western Kingbirds Putting A Poor Beetle Through Hell
Western Kingbird Delivering A Cricket To A Hungry Mouth
It isn’t easy to get two birds sharp at these focal lengths and when one of them is in flight the degree of difficulty increases exponentially.
The Western Kingbird and the Beetle
This will be another behavioral post – yes I am fascinated by interesting behaviors, perhaps overly so… I found this Western Kingbird hunting from a barbed wire perch which is quite typical for the species. It was so focused on its prey that it let me get quite close so I was able to get better detail of the feeding behavior than I normally do. 1/500, f/8, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc The kingbird has spotted prey on the ground 1/1250, f/8, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc so it flew down to retrieve it. In this case it happened to be a beetle. You can see it clinging upside down to the darker diagonal twig just in front of the bird. 1/1250, f/8, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Here’s a highly cropped version of the previous image to show the beetle better. 1/1250, f/8, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc The bird grabbed the beetle but as you can see it had reached “through” the twig to get it 1/1250, f/8, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc so it got more than it bargained for. The end of the twig broke off and wedged between the beetles abdomen and the upper mandible. 1/1000, f/8, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc So it flew back to its wire perch and tried to figure out what to do about the dilemma. It actually spent about 15 seconds just sitting there and staring at what was in its…