here<\/a> if you have the interest) and just as in humans it can be a sign of anything from simple digestive disruption and discomfort to serious illness. I’ve photographed vomiting in birds at least two times previously\u00a0and interestingly in each case it was a Northern Harrier. I have no idea if that’s simply coincidence or not.<\/p>\nBut I doubt if this bird was seriously ill because soon after it accomplished its mission of expelling its digestive contents…<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/northern-harrier-1483-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"northern-harrier-1483-ron-dudley\\"")
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1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @\u00a0248 mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\nif flew off in apparent good health.<\/p>\n
This is the only image in the series\u00a0I’ve\u00a0published previously. I posted it then because I was intrigued by that incredible curl of the right wing which I don’t think I’ve ever seen to this extreme in any bird before. Its shape actually reminds me a little\u00a0of the hard red, white and green ribbon Christmas candy that some of us remember from when we were kids.<\/p>\n
Birds can do amazing things when they\u00a0need to.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
Late addendum: Blog reader “Karen” may have solved the mystery as to why this harrier vomited. In her comment below she said “there is something that looks<\/em> like a straight rod-like thing (highly technical term!) about the length of the bird\u2019s head and in front of its right wing” and she wondered if that was the cause of the vomiting. So I looked at the high resolution version of the image and I think she may be right. To me it looks like it might be a feather shaft or a plant stem that\u00a0the harrier had swallowed and couldn’t keep down.<\/em><\/p>\nBelow is a highly cropped version of the image that shows more clearly what “karen” was talking about. Good eye, Karen!<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/northern-harrier-possible-feather-1472-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This series may be a little too clinical for some but if you enjoy learning about bird biology, raptors in particular, you’ll likely find it of interest.<\/p>\n
Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55836,"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":[5,334,392,395,341],"tags":[2550,2858,86,234,3814,3815,3813],"class_list":["post-55828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bird-oddities","category-birds","category-feeding-bird-behaviors","category-miscellaneous","category-northern-harriers","tag-box-elder-county-utah","tag-casting-a-pellet","tag-circus-cyaneus","tag-northern-harrier","tag-regurgitation","tag-retching","tag-vomiting"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/northern-harrier-1483-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-ews","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55828","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=55828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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