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1\/5000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\nUsually this species is quite shy but he had only one thing on his mind and that was food so he came in very close as he foraged. Too close, actually – many of my shots of him were too tight and I clipped body parts often. I’d previously removed my teleconverter while attempting to get takeoff and flight shots of the swallows and wrens and that was a good thing, otherwise I’d never have been able to\u00a0fit all of him in the\u00a0frame.<\/p>\n
As is often the case with this species his food of choice was ants. Here\u00a0we can see\u00a0an ant\u00a0in his bill that he had just plucked off of the vertical branch in front of him.<\/p>\n
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1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n He\u00a0worked hard at his foraging, digging around in all the aspen catkins and picking ants off of the bark.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n To get at them he would sometimes hang upside down. I got a half-dozen shots of him in this position and didn’t get a catch light in his eye in any of them which disappointed me of course but I still like the documented behavior.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/800, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Here he was holding on for dear life while he rooted around in the clump of catkins for more ants. Normally I’d never post a photo where the bill of the bird is completely hidden but given the behavior and his precarious position I think that missing bill is part of the charm of the image.<\/p>\n Getting this shot was a challenge. When he landed here his weight on the springy branch supporting the catkins caused him to bounce up and down and in and out of the frame so severely that I had difficulty getting him sharp and not clipping any body parts. As he bounced through the frame I had to time each shot as best I could and hope I’d get a few\u00a0where he was sharp, no body parts were cut off and I had light in the eye. This photo was the best of the bunch.<\/p>\n These photos aren’t\u00a0classically great shots because there are shadows on the bird, depth of field issues (because I was so close), cluttered\u00a0settings, no catch light in one of them\u00a0and a missing bill. But I was thrilled by the serendipitous visit from the sapsucker and I thought my viewers might enjoy seeing some of his acrobatic\u00a0feeding behaviors.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The highlight of my morning yesterday was a serendipitous male Red-naped Sapsucker who showed up unexpectedly at the aspen tree containing swallow and wren nest cavities.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/red-naped-sapsucker-7006-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-naped-sapsucker-7006-ron-dudley\\"")
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