{"id":13126,"date":"2013-03-09T06:43:12","date_gmt":"2013-03-09T13:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=13126"},"modified":"2013-03-09T07:01:53","modified_gmt":"2013-03-09T14:01:53","slug":"anticipating-an-american-avocet-behavior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/09\/anticipating-an-american-avocet-behavior\/","title":{"rendered":"Anticipating An American Avocet Behavior"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Anticipating behaviors is often crucial for\u00a0nature photographers and that’s particularly true\u00a0when your subject is a lightning-fast\u00a0bird.\u00a0 Most of us don’t need any more images where the wings have been cut off in the frame or the bird is soft due to lack of shutter speed or poor focus tracking of the bird at\u00a0take-off.<\/p>\n<p>The American Avocet in breeding plumage\u00a0is an especially lovely subject with its long recurved bill, bluish legs, cinnamon head and neck and the black and white chevron pattern on its back.\u00a0 But you don’t see many quality flight or take-off images of the species, partially\u00a0because their flight\u00a0tendencies are fast and erratic.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-3870-ron-dudley.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"13141\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/09\/anticipating-an-american-avocet-behavior\/american-avocet-3870-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-3870-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"705,900\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"13","credit":"","camera":"Canon EOS 40D","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1206347390","copyright":"","focal_length":"700","iso":"400","shutter_speed":"0.001","title":""}\" data-image-title=\"american avocet 3870 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-3870-ron-dudley-235x300.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-3870-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13141\" alt=\"american avocet 3870 ron dudley\" src=\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-3870-ron-dudley.jpg\" width=\"705\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-3870-ron-dudley.jpg 705w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-3870-ron-dudley-235x300.jpg 235w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-3870-ron-dudley-117x150.jpg 117w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-3870-ron-dudley-400x510.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 705px) 100vw, 705px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Like many birds, avocets routinely perform single wing and leg stretches.\u00a0 These stretches occur when the bird is at rest and at ease.\u00a0 They\u00a0stretch like this in the water…<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-9237-ron-dudley.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"13144\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/09\/anticipating-an-american-avocet-behavior\/american-avocet-9237-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-9237-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,637\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"8","credit":"","camera":"Canon EOS 40D","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1212914571","copyright":"","focal_length":"700","iso":"500","shutter_speed":"0.00025","title":""}\" data-image-title=\"american avocet 9237 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-9237-ron-dudley-300x212.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-9237-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13144\" alt=\"american avocet 9237 ron dudley\" src=\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-9237-ron-dudley.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"637\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-9237-ron-dudley.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-9237-ron-dudley-300x212.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-9237-ron-dudley-150x106.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-9237-ron-dudley-400x283.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>and on land.\u00a0 But this single-wing\/leg stretch is not an indicator of nervousness or\u00a0a precursor of\u00a0take-off.\u00a0\u00a0 Neither of the birds in these two images did so immediately after the stretch.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-6382-ron-dudley.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"13127\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/09\/anticipating-an-american-avocet-behavior\/american-avocet-6382-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-6382-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,660\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"8","credit":"","camera":"Canon EOS 40D","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1246859138","copyright":"","focal_length":"700","iso":"500","shutter_speed":"0.001","title":""}\" data-image-title=\"american avocet 6382 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-6382-ron-dudley-300x220.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-6382-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13127\" alt=\"american avocet 6382 ron dudley\" src=\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-6382-ron-dudley.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"660\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-6382-ron-dudley.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-6382-ron-dudley-300x220.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-6382-ron-dudley-150x110.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-6382-ron-dudley-400x293.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>\u00a01\/1000, f\/8, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, a sliver of canvas added for composition<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0But when you see this two-winged wing stretch,\u00a0expect imminent take-off.\u00a0\u00a0 A few seconds later this bird did just that but it took off away from me and I deleted the images.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-5138-ron-dudley.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"13142\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/09\/anticipating-an-american-avocet-behavior\/american-avocet-5138-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-5138-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,663\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"8","credit":"","camera":"Canon EOS 40D","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1207036694","copyright":"","focal_length":"700","iso":"400","shutter_speed":"0.0003125","title":""}\" data-image-title=\"american avocet 5138 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-5138-ron-dudley-300x221.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-5138-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13142\" alt=\"american avocet 5138 ron dudley\" src=\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-5138-ron-dudley.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"663\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-5138-ron-dudley.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-5138-ron-dudley-300x221.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-5138-ron-dudley-150x110.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-5138-ron-dudley-400x294.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Another two-wing stretch.\u00a0 And almost immediately after the wings came down…<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-5144-ron-dudley.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"13143\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/09\/anticipating-an-american-avocet-behavior\/american-avocet-5144-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-5144-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,648\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"8","credit":"","camera":"Canon EOS 40D","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1207036697","copyright":"","focal_length":"700","iso":"400","shutter_speed":"0.0003125","title":""}\" data-image-title=\"american avocet 5144 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-5144-ron-dudley-300x216.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-5144-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13143\" alt=\"american avocet 5144 ron dudley\" src=\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-5144-ron-dudley.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"648\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-5144-ron-dudley.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-5144-ron-dudley-300x216.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-5144-ron-dudley-150x108.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/american-avocet-5144-ron-dudley-400x288.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>the bird took off.\u00a0 It’s not a good shot because of the angle of take-off but it illustrates my point.<\/p>\n<p>Here’s what Birds of North America Online has to say on the subject:<\/p>\n<p><em>“Two-wing stretch generally performed after resting and before period of flying, resting, or preening; most frequently performed by disturbed birds. Two-wing stretch often appears to be preflight intention movement; in contrast, wing and leg stretches are associated only with resting.”<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I suspect they stretch like this to loosen up the wing muscles for flight after a period of inactivity, much like a human athlete does before an event.\u00a0\u00a0If you’re a bird photographer it can be a productive behavior to understand for obvious reasons.\u00a0 But if you simply like to watch birds, understanding the potential meaning of behaviors like this can make your time in the field even more enjoyable.<\/p>\n<p>Ron<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anticipating behaviors is often crucial for\u00a0nature photographers and that’s particularly true\u00a0when your subject is a lightning-fast\u00a0bird.\u00a0 Most of us don’t need any more images where the wings have been cut off in the frame or the bird is soft due to lack of shutter speed or poor focus tracking of the bird at\u00a0take-off. The American Avocet in breeding plumage\u00a0is an especially lovely subject with its long recurved bill, bluish legs, cinnamon head and neck and the black and white chevron pattern on its back.\u00a0 But you don’t see many quality flight or take-off images of the species, partially\u00a0because their flight\u00a0tendencies are fast and erratic. Like many birds, avocets routinely perform single wing and leg stretches.\u00a0 These stretches occur when the bird is at rest and at ease.\u00a0 They\u00a0stretch like this in the water… and on land.\u00a0 But this single-wing\/leg stretch is not an indicator of nervousness or\u00a0a precursor of\u00a0take-off.\u00a0\u00a0 Neither of the birds in these two images did so immediately after the stretch. \u00a01\/1000, f\/8, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, a sliver of canvas added for composition \u00a0But when you see this two-winged wing stretch,\u00a0expect imminent take-off.\u00a0\u00a0 A few seconds later this bird did just that but it took off away from me and I deleted the images. Another two-wing stretch.\u00a0 And almost immediately after the wings came down… the bird took off.\u00a0 It’s not a good shot because of the angle of take-off but it illustrates my point. Here’s what Birds…<\/p>\n<p> <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/09\/anticipating-an-american-avocet-behavior\/\"><span>Continue reading<\/span><i class=\"crycon-right-dir\"><\/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_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_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","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[437,6,334,395],"tags":[1311,50,564,146,884,471,605,809],"class_list":["post-13126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-avocets-shore-birds","category-bird-photography-methods","category-birds","category-miscellaneous","tag-ameriican-avocet","tag-behavior","tag-breeding-plumage","tag-flight","tag-leg-stretch","tag-recurvirostra-americana","tag-take-off","tag-wing-stretch"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-3pI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}