![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/barn-swallow-0454-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"barn-swallow-0454-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nPhotographing swallows in flight is one of the more difficult tasks I\u00a0attempt as a bird photographer. They’re small, fast and erratic so my keeper rate with them is incredibly low.<\/p>\n
But it helps if they’re hovering in flight and when the reason they’re hovering is a cute little fledgling they’re feeding I have the added bonus of the behavioral interplay between two birds (even though getting them both sharp is another matter).<\/p>\n
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1\/4000, f\/7.1, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II US, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n In August of 2015 I spent some time with an adult Barn Swallow feeding one of its fledglings at Bear River MBR. The youngster would wait on the perch while the\u00a0parent made multiple trips delivering insects to the ravenous young bird. Usually the insects were midges so they were quite small and difficult to see in my photos. Here the adult has just fed a midge to the fledgling and is about to fly off.<\/p>\n Normally I prefer complete separation of my subjects but because we can still see the youngster well through the fanned primaries of the adult I actually like the effect in this photo.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II US, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Here\u00a0the adult is about to stuff a midge down the throat of the fledgling. I wish we could see the youngster’s eye better than\u00a0we can\u00a0but for me that’s a minor flaw given the behavior and the interaction of the two birds, especially when one of them is in flight. I love the flight posture of the adult and the good look at almost its entire ventral surface.<\/p>\n Getting these photos and a few others of these birds\u00a0was a real treat for me. Over the years I’ve spent countless hours attempting to photograph Barn and Cliff Swallows in flight near an old barn on our Montana family farm with almost nothing of any quality to show for it so it was nice to finally have my persistence (stubbornness…)\u00a0pay off.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photographing swallows in flight is one of the more difficult tasks I attempt as a bird photographer.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/barn-swallow-0410-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"barn-swallow-0410-ron-dudley\\"")
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