{"id":41154,"date":"2016-08-01T05:53:45","date_gmt":"2016-08-01T11:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=41154"},"modified":"2016-08-01T12:28:24","modified_gmt":"2016-08-01T18:28:24","slug":"an-american-bittern-out-in-the-open-finally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2016\/08\/01\/an-american-bittern-out-in-the-open-finally\/","title":{"rendered":"An American Bittern Out In The Open, Finally!"},"content":{"rendered":"

In about nine years of photographing birds I’ve never found an American Bittern out in the open. Until last week. Bitterns may be the most secretive and shy avian species I\u00a0try<\/em> to photograph\u00a0because they spend nearly all of their time buried deeply in tall wetland vegetation and seldom come out. Their very effective cryptic coloration doesn’t help and they’re uncommon to boot.<\/p>\n

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\"american<\/p>\n

1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

But last Friday I spent almost five minutes with this one at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. The bird was entirely exposed and didn’t seem to care which surprised me immensely. The setting it was in doesn’t make for pretty pictures but at this point I don’t care a whit about that.<\/p>\n

If you’re ever lucky enough to see one of these birds there should be no confusing it with another species – American Bitterns are the only heron with that long black patch running down the side of the neck (in adults).<\/p>\n

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\"american<\/p>\n

1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

This bittern was completely at ease and it spent much of its time preening. As it did so it revealed a plumage feature I was unaware of in this species\u00a0– it had extremely long feathers coming off the back of its head. Those feathers (I hesitate to call them a “crown”) were often raised off of the back of its neck which gave the bird a bit of a goofy look.<\/p>\n

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\"american<\/p>\n

1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

It held those feathers up for quite a while as it preened and when it felt the need to scratch its chin…<\/p>\n

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\"american<\/p>\n

1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

those feathers were fanned out and pulled forward which was so unexpected that it made me literally laugh out loud as I was firing away with my camera.<\/p>\n

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\"american<\/p>\n

1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

Something else surprised me about the behavior of this bird. When it was through preening it turned to its left…<\/p>\n

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\"american<\/p>\n

1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

and squatted down to defecate. I’m not sure why that surprised me but it did and it made me think of a dog doing the same thing.<\/p>\n

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\"american<\/p>\n

1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

Then the bird was kind enough to give me a nice wing stretch before it…<\/p>\n

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\"american<\/p>\n

1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

turned to its\u00a0right and took off away from me (and I almost cut off its head). I very rarely see photos of bitterns in flight so I sure wish it had taken off more in my direction.<\/p>\n

Some readers might not be fully appreciative of my excitement about finding a bittern out in the open so I’m going to include some statements from Birds of North America Online regarding how difficult their secretive ways make it to study them and learn their habits (and photograph them):<\/p>\n