{"id":52261,"date":"2017-10-06T05:06:02","date_gmt":"2017-10-06T11:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=52261"},"modified":"2017-10-06T05:52:28","modified_gmt":"2017-10-06T11:52:28","slug":"forsters-tern-feeding-a-juvenile-on-a-morbid-perch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/10\/06\/forsters-tern-feeding-a-juvenile-on-a-morbid-perch\/","title":{"rendered":"Forster&#8217;s Tern Feeding A Juvenile On A Morbid Perch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There are\u00a0perches and then there are&#8230; <em>perches<\/em>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Note: I was far away from these birds so these\u00a0photos have been significantly cropped and as a result\u00a0the image quality isn&#8217;t great (though it&#8217;s not bad considering the large crop). All but the last\u00a0shot have been cropped to exactly 30% of the original image and the last one has been cropped to 33.5%. <\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"52262\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/10\/06\/forsters-tern-feeding-a-juvenile-on-a-morbid-perch\/forsters-tern-9116-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9116-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,643\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;5.6&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;RON DUDLEY&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;Canon EOS 7D Mark II&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1507021088&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;700&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;800&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.000125&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"forster&amp;#8217;s tern 9116 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9116-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-52262 size-full\" title=\"forsters-tern-9116-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9116-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9116-ron-dudley.jpg 900w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9116-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9116-ron-dudley-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9116-ron-dudley-150x107.jpg 150w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9116-ron-dudley-400x286.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Three days ago I photographed a juvenile Forster&#8217;s Tern as it was being fed a fish by one of its parents at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. The youngster&#8217;s perch is unique and I thought a little morbid &#8211; it&#8217;s a dead coot. The coot is on its back with the tip of its beak sticking up at left and its feet on the right. In over an hour the coot didn&#8217;t move in the stiff\u00a0breeze (which is ruffling the feathers of the juvenile) so it must have been grounded in the shallow water.<\/p>\n<p>The young\u00a0tern was displaying begging behavior the entire time I was with it but here it has just spotted one of its parents coming in with a fish so its begging and calling intensified dramatically.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"52263\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/10\/06\/forsters-tern-feeding-a-juvenile-on-a-morbid-perch\/forsters-tern-9118-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9118-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,643\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;5.6&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;RON DUDLEY&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;Canon EOS 7D Mark II&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1507021089&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;700&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;800&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.000125&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"forster&amp;#8217;s tern 9118 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9118-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-52263 size-full\" title=\"forsters-tern-9118-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9118-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9118-ron-dudley.jpg 900w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9118-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9118-ron-dudley-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9118-ron-dudley-150x107.jpg 150w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9118-ron-dudley-400x286.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The adult has what may be a very small carp in its beak. Interestingly, studies have shown that Forster&#8217;s Terns deliberately correlate the size of the fish\u00a0to the size of their young &#8211; smaller fish to smaller offspring.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"52264\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/10\/06\/forsters-tern-feeding-a-juvenile-on-a-morbid-perch\/forsters-tern-9120-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9120-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,643\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;5.6&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;RON DUDLEY&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;Canon EOS 7D Mark II&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1507021089&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;700&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;800&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.000125&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"forster&amp;#8217;s tern 9120 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9120-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-52264 size-full\" title=\"forsters-tern-9120-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9120-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9120-ron-dudley.jpg 900w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9120-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9120-ron-dudley-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9120-ron-dudley-150x107.jpg 150w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9120-ron-dudley-400x286.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The adult was quite delicate in its delivery. Even though its wings were beating furiously as it was hovering&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"52265\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/10\/06\/forsters-tern-feeding-a-juvenile-on-a-morbid-perch\/forsters-tern-9121-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9121-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,643\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;5.6&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;RON DUDLEY&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;Canon EOS 7D Mark II&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1507021089&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;700&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;800&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.000125&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"forster&amp;#8217;s tern 9121 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9121-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-52265 size-full\" title=\"forsters-tern-9121-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9121-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9121-ron-dudley.jpg 900w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9121-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9121-ron-dudley-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9121-ron-dudley-150x107.jpg 150w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9121-ron-dudley-400x286.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>it was very careful to make sure the\u00a0awkward youngster had the fish securely it its beak&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"52275\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/10\/06\/forsters-tern-feeding-a-juvenile-on-a-morbid-perch\/forsters-tern-9127b-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9127b-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,643\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;5.6&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;RON DUDLEY&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;Canon EOS 7D Mark II&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1507021090&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;700&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;800&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.000125&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"forster&amp;#8217;s tern 9127b ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9127b-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-52275 size-full\" title=\"forsters-tern-9127b-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9127b-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9127b-ron-dudley.jpg 900w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9127b-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9127b-ron-dudley-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9127b-ron-dudley-150x107.jpg 150w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9127b-ron-dudley-400x286.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>before flying off. The juvenile gobbled the fish down quickly.<\/p>\n<p>Despite having to heavily crop these images I&#8217;m still happy to have them for the behavior they illustrate and for their uniqueness. After all, photos of Forster&#8217;s Terns feeding fish to a youngster on the carcass of a dead coot don&#8217;t come along every day&#8230; \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>Ron<\/p>\n<p><em>PS &#8211; When there&#8217;s wind most perched birds align their bodies so\u00a0they&#8217;re facing into\u00a0the wind but this juvenile had its butt to the wind the entire time (thus the severely ruffled feathers). I had to wonder if that was instinctual behavior specific to this feeding situation to make it easier for the adult with food\u00a0to hover in front of the youngster. I&#8217;m thinking that it likely was and if so it&#8217;s just more bird behavior I find fascinating&#8230;\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Note to photographers: These photos were just a bit of a challenge to rotate to level. The temptation was to rotate based on one of\u00a0the nearly horizontal bands of detritus in the water because at first our eye tells us that\u00a0should be level but\u00a0those bands\u00a0were actually running slightly\u00a0obliquely\u00a0to me so they were a little deceiving. I chose to rotate to try to\u00a0get the floating coot level which is as it should be but the detritus bands may still lead our eyes astray, especially in some of the earlier images.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are perches and then there are&#8230; perches.<\/p>\n<p> <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/10\/06\/forsters-tern-feeding-a-juvenile-on-a-morbid-perch\/\"><span>Continue reading<\/span><i class=\"crycon-right-dir\"><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52265,"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":[338,6,334,392,1235],"tags":[1052,49,1555,3599,141,714,3600,1800,1238],"class_list":["post-52261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge-favorite-locations","category-bird-photography-methods","category-birds","category-feeding-bird-behaviors","category-forsters-terns","tag-american-coot","tag-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","tag-begging","tag-feeding-chick","tag-fish","tag-forsters-tern","tag-level","tag-rotation","tag-sterna-forsteri"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/forsters-tern-9121-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-dAV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52261","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=52261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}