{"id":48008,"date":"2017-05-06T05:41:24","date_gmt":"2017-05-06T11:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=48008"},"modified":"2017-05-06T05:41:24","modified_gmt":"2017-05-06T11:41:24","slug":"our-western-kingbirds-are-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/05\/06\/our-western-kingbirds-are-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Western Kingbirds Are Back"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the birds whose return I most look forward to in the spring is the Western Kingbird. I love their enthusiastic social displays and their\u00a0exuberant chittering as they interact with each other. Their devotion to feeding hungry chicks after they’ve left the nest makes for some great photo ops as do their finely honed insect-hunting skills.<\/p>\n

I’ve been seeing them in northern Utah for a couple of weeks now and I look forward to getting some shots of them I like very much but this year it hasn’t happened yet.<\/p>\n

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1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

This image from yesterday morning is as close as I’ve come. Readers know how much I dislike wires in my photos and I’m not happy with this composition but I really like the pose and the light and detail\u00a0underneath the bird.<\/p>\n

But the image inspires me to do better\u00a0and it\u00a0brings back memories of other kingbird behaviors I’ve photographed in the past such as the three photos below.<\/p>\n

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1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 1250, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

Most kingbird behaviors are quick and somewhat difficult to photograph well but this one gave me a slow but enthusiastic wing and tail stretch that allowed me to get quite a few similar (but still different) photos of the behavior. It’s a good thing the stretch was performed slowly in this low light situation that made me bump up\u00a0my ISO into territory I seldom visit.<\/p>\n

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1\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

I love photographing hunting kingbirds along old, rustic fence lines. They’re incredibly good hunters and typically they return to the rusty wire or\u00a0a gnarly old fence post to gobble their prey down so interesting photo ops\u00a0can be\u00a0fairly easy to come by. This bird illustrates one of the reasons\u00a0why kingbirds are classified as flycatchers.<\/p>\n

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1\/2000, f\/9, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

When kingbird chicks fledge and are still learning to fly they often follow their parents around (as best they can) and mob them for food. This adult at the top of the wooden post had just landed there after an unsuccessful attempt at an insect but the youngster at bottom still flew in and begged for a meal from its parent. I waited until I had eye contact from both birds and popped off a few shots. I had to shoot this image vertically for obvious reasons but even so I clipped the virtual tail of the chick. I was shooting at f\/9 to give me just a little more depth of field.<\/p>\n

Western Kingbirds are extremely aggressive in defending their territory (especially the\u00a0area around their nest) from other birds and they often mob\u00a0any raptor that might perch or fly nearby so one of my goals for this year is to photograph those behaviors. And to do it well.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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One of the birds whose return I most look forward to in the spring is the Western Kingbird.<\/p>\n

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