{"id":41490,"date":"2016-08-15T05:26:54","date_gmt":"2016-08-15T11:26:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=41490"},"modified":"2016-08-15T05:44:30","modified_gmt":"2016-08-15T11:44:30","slug":"western-grebe-chick-learning-wing-flapping-from-dad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2016\/08\/15\/western-grebe-chick-learning-wing-flapping-from-dad\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Grebe Chick Learning Wing-flapping From Dad"},"content":{"rendered":"

I suspect wing-flapping behavior is probably instinctive but I believe this chick was taking its cue from its father.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"western1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

I spent quite a while with a family of Western Grebes three days ago at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge – based on the size and straightness of the bill I believe this to be the adult male. He was being pestered by one of his chicks (just out of frame) when he suddenly rose up in the water and\u00a0executed an impressive and extended wing-flap.<\/p>\n

The chick apparently noticed the performance…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"western<\/p>\n

1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

because the youngster soon began a wing-flap of its own (these 12 images of the chick are all sequential without any “skips”).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"western<\/p>\n

1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like its parent it rose vertically out of the water for the performance.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"western<\/p>\n

1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

At this young age the vanes of the flight feathers have just recently begun\u00a0to emerge\u00a0from their shafts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"western<\/p>\n

1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

With relatively little air resistance from its undeveloped\u00a0flight feathers its wings flopped and flailed at awkward angles.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"western<\/p>\n

1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

The primary feathers first emerge at about 40 days and complete growth at 70 days so I’d estimate the age of this chick at just under 7 weeks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"western<\/p>\n

1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

Those immature wings really flopped around. I suspect part of the reason for this behavior at this age is much-needed muscle development.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"western<\/p>\n

1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here the bird is just beginning to settle back down in the water.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"western<\/p>\n

1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

At this point it seemed unsure about what to do with its wings when the wing-flapping was over.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"western<\/p>\n

1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

It held them vertically for a few moments (adults don’t do this)…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"western<\/p>\n

1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

and then slowly began to fold them…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"western<\/p>\n

1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

back into place.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"western<\/p>\n

1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

Finally, when it figured out where everything belonged, the wing-flap was completed.<\/p>\n

This was the first time I’d seen a chick at this age perform a wing-flap so I thought it was pretty neat. Maybe I overdid it a little with 13 images but I liked seeing as much of the behavior as possible and I thought readers might enjoy the same thing.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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

I suspect wing-flapping behavior is probably instinctive but I believe this chick was taking its cue from its father.<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41497,"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":[338,334,395,366],"tags":[731,49,481,190,211,322,739],"class_list":["post-41490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge-favorite-locations","category-birds","category-miscellaneous","category-western-grebes","tag-aechmophorus-occidentalis","tag-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","tag-chick","tag-juvenile","tag-male","tag-western-grebe","tag-wing-flap"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/western-grebe-0938-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-aNc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41490","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=41490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}