![\"black-billed](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/black-billed-magpie-2317-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nI like these images not because they’re flashy but\u00a0because they’re just a little bit different.<\/p>\n
For reasons that should be obvious, photographing birds as they land is usually much more difficult than at takeoff so we don’t see many\u00a0landing shots posted on the web. I try to practice\u00a0landing shots whenever I have the opportunity and I had just that\u00a0with Black-billed Magpies two days ago on Antelope Island.<\/p>\n
One of\u00a0several reasons birds are difficult to photograph landing is that you\u00a0seldom know where they’re going to touch down. But on this morning as I was photographing these magpies near their nest bush I noticed that (unlike previous days I’d spent with them) they were consistently landing on the same high spot on one of the bushes. The reason for that change in behavior may (or may not) have been related to a stiff and steady north breeze that was blowing.\u00a0I decided to try to take advantage of the situation so I would prefocus on that high spot and hope I could click the shutter fast enough when I saw a bird entering the frame from my left (with the wind they always came from that direction – they would even circle around in order to do so).<\/p>\n
The following three\u00a0photos are consecutive images in a burst.<\/p>\n
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1\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 400, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n I didn’t get any spectacular wing and tail positions because\u00a0they were always\u00a0flying into the wind as they came in\u00a0so they had plenty of lift with their wings only partially extended but I still find this image interesting because it just has a different “feel” about it. I like the peekaboo effect of the legs and feet through the wing primaries,\u00a0the way the magpie seems suspended in air\u00a0over the intended perch and of course the iridescence.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 400, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Because of the headwind, in the 1\/10th of a second from the first image to the second the bird had only traveled forward\u00a0a little over\u00a0an inch (based on the position of the eye relative to the perch in the two shots) but its body posture has changed significantly – especially regarding the feet and wings.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 400, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Here the magpie is settling into the perch immediately\u00a0after touch-down..<\/p>\n These\u00a0aren’t spectacular images but I don’t always need spectacular. I enjoy sequences like this because I can study the mechanics of landing and they always make me wonder what’s going through the mind of the bird as it accomplishes such a complex task so effortlessly. For them the process, once they’ve learned the basics of\u00a0it as a youngster, is likely mostly a matter of repetition and muscle memory but each landing situation is different so there must be other “stuff” going on too.<\/p>\n More evidence that birds are amazing.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I like these images not because they’re flashy but because they’re just a little bit different.<\/p>\n![\"black-billed](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/black-billed-magpie-2318-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"black-billed](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/black-billed-magpie-2319-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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