A \u201cflight display\u201d is given from a high singing perch. A singing male jumps upward, flaps his wings once or several times, ascends a meter or two above the perch, and then parachutes down, wings open, onto the same or a nearby perch. White wing patches are conspicuous during the display, and the bird sings continuously. Unmated, territorial males give flight displays an order of magnitude more frequently than mated males. The frequency of the flight display fluctuates yearly. In one year when all the males in a population returned to their respective breeding territories, the display was almost nonexistent. In previous and subsequent years, when new males resided on some of the territories, it was common.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nLets see what it looks like. All 17 photos below are presented in the order they were taken.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/northern-mockingbird-9671-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"northern-mockingbird-9671-ron-dudley\\"")
Before this\u00a0series was taken I’d watched\u00a0the mostly backlit male display from this sagebrush 3 times. At first I was frustrated because he was so far away but then I realized that his distance might be an opportunity to keep him in frame for the entire display so even though it wouldn’t be easy that was my intent when his next display began.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/northern-mockingbird-9672-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"northern-mockingbird-9672-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n
He launched upward.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/northern-mockingbird-9673-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"northern-mockingbird-9673-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n
Notice that he was singing for the entire time of the behavior – just like BNA said they do.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/northern-mockingbird-9674-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"northern-mockingbird-9674-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n
He continues to rise. As often as possible I’ve cropped these photos to keep his original perch in frame to give us an idea of his elevation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/northern-mockingbird-9675-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"northern-mockingbird-9675-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n
Now his flight path…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/northern-mockingbird-9676-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"northern-mockingbird-9676-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n
became even steeper.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/northern-mockingbird-9677-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"northern-mockingbird-9677-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n
During the entire event he stayed almost directly above the original sagebrush perch.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/northern-mockingbird-9678-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"northern-mockingbird-9678-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n
This shot is very soft because I was moving my lens quickly to try to keep him in frame as he flew straight up\u00a0but I wanted to include the entire sequence of photos.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/northern-mockingbird-9679-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"northern-mockingbird-9679-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n
Here he’s finally reached the apex of his display flight and he immediately began to…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/northern-mockingbird-9680-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"northern-mockingbird-9680-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n
rotate forward and then parachute down.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/northern-mockingbird-9681-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"northern-mockingbird-9681-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n
By now he’s relocated the original perch…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/northern-mockingbird-9682-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"northern-mockingbird-9682-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n
as he continues to parachute down toward it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/northern-mockingbird-9683-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"northern-mockingbird-9683-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n
I couldn’t always see his head but I think it’s important to…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/northern-mockingbird-9684-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"northern-mockingbird-9684-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n
include every photo in the series.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/northern-mockingbird-9685-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"northern-mockingbird-9685-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n
Wings held higher as he’s parachuting down\u00a0allow him to fall more quickly and in combination with using\u00a0his tail as a rudder\u00a0he can “aim” toward the perch below him.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/northern-mockingbird-9686-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"northern-mockingbird-9686-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n
Almost there.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/northern-mockingbird-9687-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"northern-mockingbird-9687-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n
His landing was sort of a “plop” event but he did make it back down to the original perch only inches from where he began.<\/p>\n
Given the burst rate of my camera (10 frames\/second)\u00a0the entire display from launch to landing took exactly 1.7 seconds. I was lucky to keep him in frame for the entire event so I shouldn’t complain too much about the distance involved or the back-light. Seeing all 17 photos gives me the best opportunity I’ve ever had to evaluate what actually goes on during the display flight because in the past my eye has always been glued to the viewfinder until I lost the bird in the frame.<\/p>\n
It’s pretty strange for me to be as excited as I am about such poor quality images…<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
Note: Image techs for most of\u00a0these photos were at or near: 1\/3200, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"…without skipping a beat. This was the first time I’ve been able to accomplish that long-time goal.<\/p>\n
Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59350,"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":[3,334,391],"tags":[31,1647,146,2000,4023,4022,3434,4004,311],"class_list":["post-59343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island","category-birds","category-nesting-and-mating","tag-antelope-island-2","tag-courtship-display","tag-flight","tag-flight-display","tag-mimus-polyglottos","tag-nnorthern-mockingbird","tag-parachuting","tag-sagebrush-perch","tag-utah-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/northern-mockingbird-9677-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-fr9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59343","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=59343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}