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<\/p>\nIt’s been years since I’ve seen this courtship display and yesterday I had an opportunity to photograph it.<\/p>\n
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Yesterday morning I heard this male Northern Mockingbird long before I finally located him. He was singing constantly but he was far away and partially buried in the greasewood bush. I finally located him when he performed his very conspicuous “flight display” which made him much easier to see. But the first time he performed the display I hadn’t maneuvered my pickup into position to photograph him so all I could do was hope he’d do it again.<\/p>\n
He did, but only once before he moved off to another greasewood even further away.\u00a0I knew what to expect because I’d seen and photographed the behavior years ago.<\/p>\n
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He launched himself almost straight up from the greasewood, going….<\/p>\n
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higher and higher with…<\/p>\n
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each click of my shutter. During his vertical ascent he was…<\/p>\n
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singing the entire time. He ascended so high and so fast I lost him in my viewfinder, even though I knew beforehand what he was going to do. It’s a very difficult behavior to photograph well.<\/p>\n
Cornell’s Birds of the World states that during the display the male only ascends “a meter or two above the perch” but this guy outperformed that height by a very large margin. Both times I saw him perform the display he ascended to at least 20′ above the greasewood, maybe more.<\/p>\n
I got a few photos of him as he was dropping back down to the same perch but they were quite soft so I’m not including them.<\/p>\n
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This is the first shot I got of his descent that was sharp enough (just barely) to include. When he first began his descent straight down he was falling head first but as he got closer to the greasewood he turned into a more horizontal position and “parachuted” the rest of the way down, with his flared tail and partially spread wings slowing his descent.<\/p>\n
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This is the last shot I got where we can still see the bird because he landed on the back side of the greasewood where he was hidden from view (which explains why the bird is sharp and the greasewood is soft). But if you study the bush you can tell that he landed only a few inches to the right of where he originally took off.<\/p>\n
The “flight display” is a courtship display performed only by males, usually by unmated territorial males. I didn’t see any other mockingbirds nearby but I could hear one much further away.<\/p>\n
This bird photographer would really <\/em>like another chance at photographing the display before it’s over for the season. With my new camera I think I have a better chance of photographing it from beginning to end and getting most of the photos sharp.<\/p>\n My performance yesterday fell more than a little short.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Note: Here’s most of what Cornell’s Birds of the World has to say about this behavior.<\/p>\n “A \u201cflight display\u201d is given from a high singing perch. A singing male jumps upward, flaps his wings once or several times, ascends a meter or two above the perch, and then parachutes down, wings open, onto the same or a nearby perch. White wing patches are conspicuous during the display, and the bird sings continuously.”<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s been years since I’ve seen this courtship display and yesterday I had an opportunity to photograph it. (7 photos)<\/p>\n