{"id":24906,"date":"2014-07-06T05:08:28","date_gmt":"2014-07-06T11:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=24906"},"modified":"2014-07-06T05:08:28","modified_gmt":"2014-07-06T11:08:28","slug":"savannah-sparrow-fearless-dragon-slayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2014\/07\/06\/savannah-sparrow-fearless-dragon-slayer\/","title":{"rendered":"Savannah Sparrow – Fearless Dragon Slayer"},"content":{"rendered":"

This little Savannah Sparrow was one of my most memorable birds on our recent Montana camping trip.\u00a0 It was a\u00a0fearless and a relentless hunter.<\/p>\n

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\"savannah<\/p>\n

\u00a01\/3200, f\/5.6, ISO 640, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The sparrow could always be found hunting for insects\u00a0in the same spot on the shore of Lower Red Rock Lake – you can begin to see the lake in the upper background of this shot.\u00a0 On some days it was feeding a single fledgling that was following the adult around.\u00a0 I never noticed\u00a0this birds mate or any other fledglings but that’s not surprising because after fledging the adults usually divide the brood evenly with each parent feeding and guarding 1-2 youngsters.<\/p>\n

I’ve never seen a sparrow that was a better or more determined hunter than this one.\u00a0 If the insects\u00a0were small she would cram her bill full and then feed them then and there\u00a0to the\u00a0fledgling if it was close by.\u00a0 If the young bird was hiding in the grasses\u00a0it would usually fly in that direction with the food and then return within seconds for more.\u00a0 The sparrow had absolutely no fear of my pickup (as usual I was shooting from there) and would often approach it to within less than a foot or two – the angle would be so steep and the bird so close that I couldn’t focus.<\/p>\n

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\"savannah<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a01\/4000, f\/5.6, ISO 640, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But sometimes the prey it tackled was very large compared to the size of the sparrow and this is an example.\u00a0 I wish I knew for sure what species this prey item was.\u00a0 It looks somewhat similar to some dragonfly larvae but I don’t think that’s it and my biology background was never heavy into entomology.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s segmented, has two\u00a0“tails” and there are appendages on several anterior appendages.\u00a0 This shot\u00a0gives a relatively\u00a0good view of the ventral surface.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\"savannah<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a01\/4000, f\/5.6, ISO 640, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Here’s a look at the dorsal surface.\u00a0 In previous years I’ve seen Savannah Sparrows consume the same species near the lake but they’ve always been much smaller than this one.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\"savannah<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a01\/5000, f\/5.6, ISO 640, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

When the insect was first caught the sparrow repeatedly and quickly bit at the head and then flung it aside, as it’s doing here (the prey is flying through the air).\u00a0 I had the distinct impression that the bird was trying to avoid being bitten.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\"savannah<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a01\/4000, f\/5.6, ISO 640, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This might be the best single look I was able to get of the insect…<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\"savannah<\/p>\n

\u00a01\/4000, f\/5.6, ISO 640, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

especially when the image is cropped very heavily.\u00a0 The anterior pair of appendages look like they might\u00a0be modified into fangs and if so I can certainly understand why the sparrow was being so careful.\u00a0 Sometime in the future I’ll post images of this bird with other prey and feeding the fledgling but for now I’d sure like to know for sure what species this prey item is.<\/p>\n

Any thoughts on that subject would be appreciated.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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

This little Savannah Sparrow was one of my most memorable birds on our recent Montana camping trip. It was a fearless and a relentless hunter.<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24911,"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":[334,392,360,442],"tags":[555,2093,145,178,1557,1752,220,444,263,443],"class_list":["post-24906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birds","category-feeding-bird-behaviors","category-red-rock-lakes-national-wildlife-refuge-favorite-locations","category-savannah-sparrows","tag-centennial-valley","tag-fangs","tag-fledgling","tag-hunting","tag-insect","tag-lower-red-rock-lake","tag-montana-2","tag-passerculus-sandwichensis","tag-red-rock-lakes-national-wildlife-refuge","tag-savannah-sparrow"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/savannah-sparrow-3197-large-crop-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-6tI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24906","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=24906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}