{"id":37789,"date":"2016-02-29T05:37:03","date_gmt":"2016-02-29T12:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=37789"},"modified":"2016-02-29T06:11:09","modified_gmt":"2016-02-29T13:11:09","slug":"an-impressive-meadowlark-transformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2016\/02\/29\/an-impressive-meadowlark-transformation\/","title":{"rendered":"An Impressive Meadowlark Transformation"},"content":{"rendered":"

I often see birds\u00a0puff up but the “inflating ” performance of this Western Meadowlark was over the top.<\/p>\n

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\"western<\/p>\n

1\/4000, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

I photographed the bird yesterday morning as it sang on a rabbit brush perch. At first nothing seemed out of the ordinary – just a colorful bird singing a melodious song on a beautiful morning on Antelope Island. But then my jaw began to drop as I watched the meadowlark through my lens.<\/p>\n

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\"western<\/p>\n

1\/4000, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

Soon after moving slightly forward on the perch the meadowlark began to erect nearly all of its body feathers to an extreme that I have\u00a0rarely seen before. Its body shape reminded me of a balloon that was about to pop. The bird didn’t shake (rouse), it just held this puffed up pose for some time, perhaps 10 seconds or so.\u00a0It even continued to sing in this rotund condition.<\/p>\n

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\"western<\/p>\n

1\/2500, f\/8, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

Soon I suspected from its behavior\u00a0that it was about to take off. Here the bird is looking in the direction that it’s about to fly but its feathers are still puffed up to the extreme. I thought birds always flatten their feathers before they take off…<\/p>\n

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\"western<\/p>\n

1\/3200, f\/8, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

but this one certainly didn’t.<\/p>\n

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\"western<\/p>\n

1\/2500, f\/8, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even after launch it still looked like a beach ball.<\/p>\n

I suspect that this was a form of posturing used by males in territorial disputes. After all, nesting season is about to begin and meadowlarks are now singing on territory on the island and there\u00a0may have been another male nearby. One of the two types of posturing used by meadowlarks is called Expansion Posturing and BNA Online says the following about it:<\/p>\n