{"id":61941,"date":"2018-08-05T05:28:11","date_gmt":"2018-08-05T11:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=61941"},"modified":"2018-08-05T05:55:40","modified_gmt":"2018-08-05T11:55:40","slug":"western-kingbird-with-unusual-nesting-material","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2018\/08\/05\/western-kingbird-with-unusual-nesting-material\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Kingbird With Unusual Nesting Material"},"content":{"rendered":"

It isn’t a nesting material you see every day.<\/p>\n

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1\/3200, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

Here the female of a mated pair has just landed on top of their nest in sagebrush with nesting material in her bill\u00a0(in this species only females build nests). If I tell you that the photo was taken on Antelope Island can you guess what the nesting material is?<\/p>\n

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It’s bison hair. I’ve seen and documented Loggerhead Shrikes and even a Common Raven\u00a0carrying bison hair to their nests<\/a> several times over the years\u00a0but this was a first for me with Western Kingbirds. I watched as\u00a0she carried nesting material dozens of times but this was the only instance where it was anything but small twigs or dried grass, as evidenced by the nest itself. Perhaps she was beginning to line the inner\u00a0nest cup with softer materials.<\/p>\n

Normally it would have been very\u00a0tricky\u00a0for me to get this bird’s head sharp while she was on the nest in this position\u00a0because of all the twigs sticking up in the foreground but\u00a0here I had an advantage because I had my…<\/p>\n

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1\/3200, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

active focus point locked on her in the previous image in the burst just before she made touchdown on the nest (notice her extended feet). So the focus point\u00a0stayed locked on the bird\u00a0for the next photo.<\/p>\n

I like to photograph firsts and for me this was a first with a Western Kingbird using bison fur as nesting material. They’re only documentary quality\u00a0images but I’ll take them\u00a0anyway.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

Note: It may seem illogical for me to present the two photos out-of-order like I did but I wanted to make a point about how my focus points worked and that seemed like the most effective way to do it.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And it isn’t a nesting material you see every day.<\/p>\n

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