{"id":114114,"date":"2022-07-12T05:33:38","date_gmt":"2022-07-12T11:33:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=114114"},"modified":"2022-07-12T06:07:03","modified_gmt":"2022-07-12T12:07:03","slug":"black-billed-magpie-interpreting-flight-postures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2022\/07\/12\/black-billed-magpie-interpreting-flight-postures\/","title":{"rendered":"Black-billed Magpie – Interpreting Flight Postures"},"content":{"rendered":"

And what about the head size and shape of this magpie – is it a little different?<\/p>\n

Three days ago I mentioned that on my last visit to Antelope Island I didn’t see a single Black-billed Magpie, which was highly unusual and at least a little alarming. Readers know that I’m very fond of magpies so yesterday, in a fit of nostalgia, I reviewed the most recent magpie photos I’ve taken on the island and came across this one that I’m surprised I haven’t posted before.<\/p>\n

This bird is actually the last magpie I photographed this season, nearly two months ago on May 18th.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

I like the photo and find it interesting for a lot of reasons but two of them stand out.<\/p>\n

Almost without exception in photos like this I can tell if the bird is about to land or has just taken off by looking at its flight posture, leg and tail position and the direction it’s looking. But in this photo I can’t, at least not for sure. And even though I saved the next photo in the burst (which I haven’t included here), I can’t tell for sure in that second photo either. If I had to guess I’d say this bird is landing but, as I’ve said before, landing shots are much more difficult to get, which makes me a little skeptical about my guess.<\/p>\n

Over the years I’ve seen a lot of magpies up close but this one looks a little different to me and I find that difference appealing. It’s all about the apparent size and shape of the head of this bird, which seems larger and rounder than usual for the species, at least to me. I think it’s an attractive look. And that head shape isn’t only apparent in this photo, I also see it in the next photo in the burst.<\/p>\n

OK, I’ve rambled on long enough. I just hope I see magpies on my next visit to the island.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

PS – While I was reviewing this post just prior to publication I realized that I mentioned “the next photo in the burst” twice without including it and I thought that might be a little aggravating to my readers. So here it is, quickly processed and for what it’s worth.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And what about the head size and shape of this magpie – is it a little different? <\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,5,334,363],"tags":[31,57,6431,6432,6433,610],"class_list":["post-114114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island","category-bird-oddities","category-birds","category-black-billed-magpies","tag-antelope-island-2","tag-black-billed-magpie","tag-interpreting-flight-postures","tag-is-the-bird-landing-or-taking-off","tag-magpie-head-size-and-shape","tag-pica-hudsonia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/black-billed-magpie-3386-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-tGy","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114114"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114168,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114114\/revisions\/114168"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}