{"id":59015,"date":"2018-05-06T05:30:04","date_gmt":"2018-05-06T11:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=59015"},"modified":"2018-05-06T08:04:35","modified_gmt":"2018-05-06T14:04:35","slug":"flower-eating-chukar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2018\/05\/06\/flower-eating-chukar\/","title":{"rendered":"Flower-eating Chukar"},"content":{"rendered":"

This Chukar was hungry and\u00a0he had a\u00a0strong penchant for flowers. In fact he really stuffed himself on them.<\/p>\n

All images are presented in the order they were taken.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Three days ago on Antelope Island we found two presumed male Chukars fighting near the Frary Peak trailhead. By the time I got my pickup turned around and into position the fighting was over and this one was far more interested in filling its belly than it was in confrontation.<\/p>\n

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All he was interested in eating was purple flowers from a particular type of plant (I don’t know the species).<\/p>\n

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And he was really gobbling them down as he moved from plant to plant. It was frustrating for me as a photographer because he was usually facing me while he was eating them so I had a very difficult time getting any light in his eyes. And it was late enough in the morning that the sun angle didn’t help with that problem.<\/p>\n

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When he was through with one plant he’d walk around and look for another of the same species.<\/p>\n

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Twice he actually ran from plant to plant, as if he was afraid the other nearby\u00a0Chukar would beat him to it.<\/p>\n

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I noticed several times that he would twist his head in order to grasp the flowers and pluck\u00a0them which made for a rather unusual perspective on a bird of any kind.<\/p>\n

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Some of the plants had only a flower or two and others were loaded with them but he had no interest in plants of any\u00a0kind other\u00a0than this (I’d be interested in what species it is if any of my readers are familiar with it).<\/p>\n

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Except for once he was always facing north while he was eating but this time he turned around and faced south. Even though we can’t see the flower in his beak very well I decided to include this shot because that change of direction gave me my only photos of him eating that included a catch light in his eye.<\/p>\n

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This isn’t a great\u00a0shot but I thought the perspective on the flower going down his throat was an interesting one.<\/p>\n

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Just before I left these birds he posed nicely once again.<\/p>\n

I enjoy seeing Chukars in their\u00a0fresh spring duds. Because of molt and\/or “wearing to dark<\/a>” Chukars look pretty scruffy for much of the year but in fresh plumage I think they’re\u00a0classy looking birds.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/em><\/p>\n