3200, f\/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, image taken 7\/14\/13 on Antelope Island<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nHere’s another (pretty silly looking)\u00a0example.\u00a0 This is also the time of year when these birds are molting so I\u00a0wondered if I was somehow seeing black skin (some birds\u00a0do have black skin)\u00a0through very skimpy plumage that time of year and I was somehow\u00a0mistaking it for black feathers.\u00a0 But as you can see in this preening, molting adult, their skin is pink.<\/p>\n
The only other explanation I can think of is that the white feathers of these shrikes turn very dark when they are “worn” just before molting.\u00a0 I can’t think of any reason for that happening though and I’m dubious.<\/p>\n
So, I’m very curious about two things:\u00a0 What’s causing this color change and why is it not mentioned or illustrated\u00a0in any of my field guides or other resources?<\/p>\n
Any thoughts?\u00a0 Perhaps I’m missing the obvious.\u00a0 Won’t be the\u00a0first time…<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
Note: I’m on the road again for a few days and I’ll have no computer access\u00a0so I won’t be able to respond to any comments in a\u00a0timely fashion, though I do enjoy reading\u00a0those comments\u00a0in the email notifications I get on my phone.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I’m confused about a color change I’m seeing in\u00a0Loggerhead Shrikes. \u00a01600, f\/7.1, ISO 640, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, image taken 4\/26\/13 on Antelope Island \u00a0For most of the year the adults I see have a white or pale ventral surface (belly, breast and sides) which is exactly as described in the field guides and other resources I have access to. \u00a02500, f\/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f\/4, natural light, image taken 7\/3\/13 on Antelope Island But beginning in about early July there’s a fairly dramatic change that is not addressed in my field guides.\u00a0 That white plumage turns significantly darker and an almost black area on the upper breast appears.\u00a0\u00a0 This is about the time they’re fledging chicks around here and when I first noticed this\u00a0several years ago I wondered if the birds were simply becoming “dirty” as they scurried around trying to feed and care\u00a0for those very demanding youngsters.\u00a0 But now I’m pretty sure that’s not the case. All of the adult\u00a0Loggerhead Shrikes I see go through this change to some degree or another. \u00a03200, f\/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, image taken 7\/14\/13 on Antelope Island Here’s another (pretty silly looking)\u00a0example.\u00a0 This is also the time of year when these birds are molting so I\u00a0wondered if I was somehow seeing black skin (some birds\u00a0do have black skin)\u00a0through very skimpy plumage that time of year and I was somehow\u00a0mistaking it for black feathers.\u00a0 But as you can see in this preening, molting adult, their skin…<\/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":[3,334,346],"tags":[1578,409,206,1579,1580,1252],"class_list":["post-16999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-antelope-island","category-birds","category-loggerhead-shrikes-shrikes-and-vireos","tag-color-change","tag-lanius-ludovicianus","tag-loggerhead-shrike","tag-molting","tag-skin-color","tag-worn-feathers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-4qb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16999","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=16999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16999\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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