{"id":12330,"date":"2013-02-11T07:38:32","date_gmt":"2013-02-11T14:38:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=12330"},"modified":"2013-02-11T07:38:32","modified_gmt":"2013-02-11T14:38:32","slug":"an-interesting-observation-about-falcon-behavior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2013\/02\/11\/an-interesting-observation-about-falcon-behavior\/","title":{"rendered":"An Interesting Observation About Falcon Behavior"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve noticed an apparent behavioral quirk in some of the falcon species I’ve photographed and it’s tweaked my curiosity a bit.\u00a0 I’ve seen it most often in\u00a0Prairie Falcons but that’s most likely because I get more opportunities with that species than I do any other of the large falcons.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"prairie<\/p>\n

More often than not the Prairie Falcon holds its wings up or out (or both)\u00a0for a few moments before it takes off.\u00a0 Sometimes the posture is maintained for quite a while.\u00a0 This is one of the better shots I have of it.\u00a0 Most of the photos to follow have reduced image quality but I include them to document the behavior.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"prairie<\/p>\n

This bird held the posture for so long that I filled my buffer twice before it actually took off.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"prairie<\/p>\n

Most often I’ve seen it prior to take-off from an elevated perch like this one\u00a0but it also\u00a0happens occasionally\u00a0when they take off from the ground.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"prairie<\/p>\n

Another Prairie Falcon showing the posture.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"american<\/p>\n

I don’t see it nearly as often with the American Kestrel as I do with larger falcons.\u00a0 Perhaps that has to do with the relative ease of take-off for this diminutive falcon.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"merlin<\/p>\n

I get few opportunities with Merlins but I’ve noticed it occasionally with this species also.<\/p>\n

I’m not sure if Peregrine Falcons do it.\u00a0 Usually when I’ve been close enough to photograph peregrines they’ve been on prey on the ground and they may be less likely to show the behavior when taking off from a non-elevated perch.<\/p>\n

I don’t recall seeing this behavior in hawks, eagles or owls which makes me curious as to its purpose, if it has one.<\/p>\n

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

I’ve noticed an apparent behavioral quirk in some of the falcon species I’ve photographed and it’s tweaked my curiosity a bit.\u00a0 I’ve seen it most often in\u00a0Prairie Falcons but that’s most likely because I get more opportunities with that species than I do any other of the large falcons.   More often than not the Prairie Falcon holds its wings up or out (or both)\u00a0for a few moments before it takes off.\u00a0 Sometimes the posture is maintained for quite a while.\u00a0 This is one of the better shots I have of it.\u00a0 Most of the photos to follow have reduced image quality but I include them to document the behavior.     This bird held the posture for so long that I filled my buffer twice before it actually took off.     Most often I’ve seen it prior to take-off from an elevated perch like this one\u00a0but it also\u00a0happens occasionally\u00a0when they take off from the ground.     Another Prairie Falcon showing the posture.     I don’t see it nearly as often with the American Kestrel as I do with larger falcons.\u00a0 Perhaps that has to do with the relative ease of take-off for this diminutive falcon.     I get few opportunities with Merlins but I’ve noticed it occasionally with this species also. I’m not sure if Peregrine Falcons do it.\u00a0 Usually when I’ve been close enough to photograph peregrines they’ve been on prey on the ground and they may be less likely to show the behavior when taking off from a…<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"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":[340,334,1004,582,371],"tags":[28,1226,1228,541,1227,605,1229],"class_list":["post-12330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-kestrels","category-birds","category-falconry-2","category-peregrine-falcons","category-prairie-falcons","tag-american-kestrel","tag-falcon-behavior","tag-merlin","tag-peregrine-falcon","tag-prairiei-falcon","tag-take-off","tag-wings-up"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-3cS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12330","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=12330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12330\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}