![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/american-coot-9875-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"american-coot-9875-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nTestosterone wars.<\/p>\n
Two days ago at Bear River MBR I witnessed an extended fight, a brawl really, that involved about half of the birds in a group of 16-18 paired-up American Coots. The presumed males seemed to take turns chasing and fighting each other while the females mostly watched, seemingly with great interest. The excitement lasted for at least 3-4 minutes. It was pure pandemonium for that long.<\/p>\n
But the fights were a bugger to photograph. Most of them occurred with coots that had shore vegetation between me and the combatants, so those shots were invariably soft due to focusing issues. And getting two fighting birds in the frame and reasonably sharp is always difficult. The biggest challenge was anticipating which two birds out of that many possibilities were going to fight. I can’t tell you how many times I had my lens on one bird when a fight broke out between two other birds.\u00a0 My lens, and this photographer, really got a workout.<\/p>\n
I only succeeded one time. The following four photos are sequential without any skips.<\/p>\n
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1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Before this presumed male started chasing another male, he had his tail sticking up and his head down in the classic coot threat posture so I was able to lock focus on him just before he launched his attack. In this first shot his intended victim is barely out of frame to the right.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Now we see part of the right wing of the coot he’s chasing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/5000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Finally, I got both birds completely in the frame and reasonably sharp.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/5000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n This is the last shot I got before losing focus on both birds. I’m quite happy with the last two photos. This perspective, with two fighting coots coming in my direction, is one I rarely get.<\/p>\n This time the intended victim made a clean getaway (barely) but when one bird caught another the resulting fights were often vicious. Several times I saw one coot holding another underwater for long enough that I began to have concerns about that bird’s survival.<\/p>\n Then after 3-4 minutes of many skirmishes, as if on some invisible cue, all the fights were over in an instant and peace returned to the coot community except for the residual squawking of still-excited birds. I waited for a while for more fights to break out but when they didn’t I drove on down the road to look for other birds.<\/p>\n It was a blast while it lasted.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Testosterone wars. (4 photos)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/amerocan-coot-9876-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"amerocan-coot-9876-ron-dudley\\"")
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