{"id":111930,"date":"2022-05-31T05:32:42","date_gmt":"2022-05-31T11:32:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=111930"},"modified":"2022-05-31T07:54:31","modified_gmt":"2022-05-31T13:54:31","slug":"male-northern-mockingbird-flight-display-another-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2022\/05\/31\/male-northern-mockingbird-flight-display-another-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Male Northern Mockingbird Flight Display – Another Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lightning didn’t just strike once that morning.<\/p>\n

A couple of weeks ago I posted a series of photos of a male Northern Mockingbird on Antelope Island performing the distinctive courtship display of the species referred to as the \u201cflight display\u201d. I’d photographed snippets of the behavior in the past but I’d never been able to document a single display (performance) from beginning to end until that day, on May 18, when I was lucky enough to photograph it multiple times (maybe 6?).<\/p>\n

Every performance is similar but different. For example, usually the bird sings continually, but sometimes he sings only intermittently and occasionally he doesn’t sing at all – as was the case with the performance I posted two weeks ago.<\/p>\n

Today I decided to post photos of another one of his displays. This time he sang intermittently, mostly at the beginning and at the end of the display. Once again I’ll keep my narration to a minimum because the photos mostly speak for themselves.<\/p>\n

The first 11 photos below are sequential without any skips.<\/p>\n

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He wasn’t close so one of the difficulties I had was capturing him at the very beginning of the display when he was still very close to his sagebrush perch. Because he was so far away, small in my viewfinder and partially hidden by sagebrush, it was hard for me to recognize his pre-takeoff posture and anticipate his vertical launch so he was usually a foot or so above the sagebrush before I got off my first shot.<\/p>\n

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He’s still singing and going straight up. The tiny black specks you see above the sagebrush are midges that were disturbed by all the excitement.<\/p>\n

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Reaching the apex of his climb.<\/p>\n

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Rolling over to begin…<\/p>\n

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parachuting back down to his sagebrush perch.<\/p>\n

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I figure this is about the time he was beginning to choose…<\/p>\n

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his landing spot.<\/p>\n

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Touchdown.<\/p>\n

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Immediately after landing at the end of the display, even before folding his wings, he began to sing again. Maybe he was celebrating his performance but if he was he didn’t rest on his laurels for long because only seconds later he…<\/p>\n

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began another display. I won’t bore you with more photos of this one.<\/p>\n

After so many years of trying and failing to photograph this behavior from beginning to end, and then succeeding multiple times within six minutes, this bird photographer was pretty damn excited.<\/p>\n

Believe me, buck fever isn’t exclusive to deer hunters.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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Notes: <\/em><\/p>\n