{"id":22331,"date":"2014-02-24T06:26:34","date_gmt":"2014-02-24T13:26:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=22331"},"modified":"2014-02-24T06:26:34","modified_gmt":"2014-02-24T13:26:34","slug":"western-meadowlark-the-scars-of-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2014\/02\/24\/western-meadowlark-the-scars-of-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Meadowlark – The Scars Of Battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

The song of the meadowlark often stirs fond memories and thoughts of peaceful and melodious spring mornings.\u00a0 But for birds that song represents the tension of competition for territories and females – anything but tranquility.<\/p>\n

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\"western<\/p>\n

\u00a01\/2000, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, twig poking into frame removed, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Males in particular are marathon singers.\u00a0 Their primary song is complex and melodious but each bird has many song types – averaging 7 but up to 12.\u00a0 Song intensity increases as territorial males arrive in the spring and peaks just before the late-arriving females show up\u00a0but since they raise several broods per breeding season their territorial songs can be heard throughout the summer.<\/p>\n

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\"western<\/p>\n

\u00a01\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon 7D, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Males are aggressive in defending their territories and when evicting trespassers they pursue them in flight until they’ve been chased beyond the territorial boundary.\u00a0 The chase can last as long as 3 minutes without interruption if the invader is reluctant to leave and chases can occur as often as once per minute early in the season.<\/p>\n

This apparent male has an injury\u00a0behind its right eye, as\u00a0evidenced by the blood that can be seen on the side of its face.\u00a0 The image was taken during the height of the breeding season (May 21 of last year) and I strongly suspect it to be a battle injury inflicted by the long and very sharp beak of a rival.<\/p>\n

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A tight crop of the previous image reveals more wound detail – an apparent puncture that just missed the eye.\u00a0 This bird was lucky not to have lost its eye – a reminder of one of the reasons we see so many eye injuries in birds and why they have nictitating membranes (nictitans) for eye protection.<\/p>\n